Ivory
by Fade-Like-We-Never-Existed
Summary: After Peridot escapes, Yellow Diamond receives her message and sends an informant- that has been trapped away for over 6,000 years- to observe the Crystal Gems to prepare an escort for battle, and reactivate the Kindergarten. However, when the informant arrives she is stunned to discover another organic gem on Earth, but the two are enemies.
1. Prologue

**Prologue: Forever Lost to Passing Time**

One of the hottest days of the summer was coming to a close as the sun lowered itself to dusk. The soft waves crashing against the shore of Beach City were almost silent to the ancient Crystal Temple where the Crystal Gems inside were about to call it a day. The temple was made of stone and took the appearance of a mountain from the back, but a beautiful woman with eight arms and a mask upon her head along with a lighthouse. Patches of moss and vines about it. Its inhabitants were made of stones as well, except one which stayed in the beach house attached to the temple, right by its naval. Inside there was a boy sitting in front of a television with a gem lying on the bed behind him. The television was the only thing making noise other than the waves outside. The boy's name was Steven, a half-human, half-gem hybrid. Steven had thick black hair and eyes, and an ear-to-ear smile most the time. However, he had a somber look on his face, this was due to the show he was watching: The Crying Breakfast Friends. He wore a coral T-shirt with a yellow five pointed star on it, denim jeans and the same coral-colored sandals. What laid under the shirt was one of the most important things to the gems, the gemstones. Steven's placed where his naval should be, but the gems placement was different for everyone. The gem behind him was Amethyst, a lilac skinned gem with light lavender, beautiful long hair with her bangs covering her left eye. Her eyes are violet, and they don't seem to be focused on the show at all, but rather outside, watching the sky change color. Amethyst rubs her fingers over her black tunic which covers her gem, right above her heart, and dark mauve leggings with black star cutouts on her knees as she finishes eating an empty chip bag. She looked over at the TV to see a spoon crying and a papaya crossing its arms and looking away from the spoon.

"So… what's going on?" Amethyst dared to ask, not out of interest but more out of boredom. Steven didn't respond for a moment then looked back and said,

"Papaya is upset with Spoon." Steven started, but the warp pad light up, something had activated it. Garnet walked out of her room to find the beach house filled with light. Garnet was a fusion of two gems, Sapphire and Ruby, because of this she had two gems. Sapphire's gem on her right, and Ruby's on her left. She was the tallest of the Crystal Gems and the leader, the futuristic triangular orange tinted shades blocked the light from the warp pad, and also hid her third eye. Her skin is a cerise tone, and wears a bodysuit with maroon ovular shoulder pads, and her legs being different colors; the left half being maroon and the right being blue-violet. The chest piece has a five pointed star as well, the base being magenta and the outline being a soft pink. Her heliotrope hair is strange, but appealing as it's an afro, but almost sculpted to be a square shape.

"Pearl! Get in here!" Garnet called out. Moments later, Pearl exited her room from the temple to the beach house and found herself with one question. Pearl is a slender gem who wears a bright teal tunic with a turquoise satin sash ribbon around her waist. She wears short yellow-orange leggings, soft pink socks, and narrow ballet flats that match her tunic. She has a soft pale-white complexion with slight hints of blue in skin tone. Her hair is pale peach, and styled into a pixie-cut. She has dazzling sky-blue eyes, and a pointy nose. Her gem is placed on her forehead, the pearl on her head was almost always rough to show it was a natural pearl.

"Peridot?!" she looked over at Garnet for answers, Pearl thought Peridot was attempting to break into the temple. A silhouette appeared, it was a women, or a girl. With the outline revealed, it was in no way possible to be Peridot. Garnet gave a light huff at the thought of someone else using the warp pad.

"Not likely." Garnet muttered, Steven ran from the television to see what was going on, Amethyst followed but rather slowly.

"Hey," Steven started, thinking someone was leaving. "Where are you—Wow!" he looked at the warp pad to see the same silhouette as everyone else. He knew only three other people could use the warp pad were already standing around it, so he only had two words to say. "New person! New person! New person!" he called out; the light stopped, and the color came to the silhouette of this new gem. The gem was about as tall as Pearl, as most of their height came from their legs, but her skin was a bit more yellow, or more like an off-white. She had a triangular body shape where Pearl's was a rectangle, Garnet's an hourglass, and Amethyst being a diamond. Her feet were tiny, a size five at most, she wore brown knee-high Converse™ shoes without laces but laid snug against her legs. The material for her shoes, gloves, which came up to her elbow then point off in two directions, headband, which didn't hold back her hair that well, and the turtleneck collar on her shirt. It appeared to be thick and firm like Kevlar.

"Oh, look it's Pearl #2… What are you doing here Ivory?" Amethyst squinted her eyes, then rubbed them not entirely sure she was seeing what she was.

"Amethyst?" the new gem spoke quietly, if the world was any louder, the others wouldn't have been able to hear her.

"Ivory?" Pearl crossed her arms, unsure of this new gem… and of her being called: Pearl Number Two.

"Amethyst…" Garnet glared at Amethyst, Garnet wanted information since Amethyst clearly knew this person.

"Garnet?!" This new gem, Ivory, stepped off the warp pad to get away from Garnet. Garnet could definitely come off as intimidating. Pearl approached the new gem, with no other intent than to simply see how the other would react, as the two seemed to be very similar.

"Pearl!" Amethyst warned the taller gem to be cautious of herself; Pearl poked the new gem… her skin felt hard at first but them felt softer as she poked a bit deeper.

"Steven!" Steven jumped up by Pearl to catch the attention of Ivory, his eyes were light up with the idea of a new gem—a new friend.

"Steven?" Ivory looked down at Steven, Ivory was still tall to Steven but shorter than Pearl and Garnet. The room grew quiet as no one knew what to say then everyone spoke at once.

"How do you know Amethyst?" Steven asked.

"How did you get in?" Garnet added.

"Who are you?" Pearl wanted to start from the very beginning.

"Why are you here?" Amethyst groaned, not really much of a question, more like she was trying to sound hostile enough to get Ivory out of here.

"Where's Rose?" Ivory asked, her voice being muted by everyone else's. All the questions started and ended in sync, the room grew silent again. "I thought Rose would be here." She muttered. Pearl put her hand to her forehead and shook her head.

"You don't… know?" Pearl stood up straight and looked at the intruding gem.

"D-Don't tell me… she got d-damaged…!" Ivory held her hands up to her face, her eyes wide with the idea of losing someone like Rose, it was hard to tell if she knew Rose well or not, but it didn't matter to Pearl. Pearl could tell Ivory cared about Rose in some way, so she should tell her the truth.

"Rose fell in love with a human." Garnet stated bluntly.

"What?!" Ivory dropped her hands to her sides.

"She had a son." Garnet continued.

"B-But that means she…"

"Ivory, meet Steven." Pearl gestured to the boy beside her. He smiled brightly despite most of the room not knowing who this "Ivory" was. Garnet watched as the two began talking, meanwhile Pearl pulled Amethyst away from the others.

"What's going on? How do you know her? How did she know where to come?" Pearl tapped her foot impatiently.

"I thought that parasite was destroyed." Amethyst looked at Ivory from afar. Ivory tended to be quiet as Steven asked her a million questions, she answered the majority that she could.

"Parasite? You're saying she's from Kindergarten?" Pearl whispered to Amethyst. Amethyst nodded, remembering what kind of person she was there. Amethyst's whip appeared in her hands, but vanished soon after. Her heart must've been in a different place.

"She was… strange there." Amethyst could recall how she interacted with other gems, and how she worked, or the little work she did.

"Hey, where's your gem?" Steven asked, which broke the two across the room out of their conversation. Ivory thought for a moment, knowing full well where her gem was but had a hard time speaking up.

"It's here." She held the back of her neck, she tended to speak brusquely. Pearl couldn't tell if she was talking that way because she felt awkward, or because she was confused, or that's simply how she was, or some other fourth thing.

"Can I see it?!" Steven asked, his eyes lighting up with excitement to see another gem. Ivory had her hair tied up in a ponytail, it had lots of curls and was piled up, it looked almost tangled but it was rather sleek to show it wasn't, even the brown headband on her head could show she was not one to be messy. She had a small smile, she must've been very shy… didn't seem like one to be a parasite, a similar case to Amethyst.

"S-Sure, please be careful th-though." Ivory knelt down and turned her back to Steven and pulled her length of hair away from the collar blocking her neck, then lowered the collar to show a very detailed jasmine flower of some kind in a circle.

"Wow…" Steven's eyes light up again as if it was the first time seeing a gem.

"You can touch it if you'd like." She was rather trusting of a stranger. Steven poked it, it was hard but the engraving in it were strangely, much softer. Amethyst felt her gem placed upon her heart, it was cold… why was it cold? Pearl was a bit insecure at the moment too, and rubbed her forehead. The pearl was smooth, it was usually rough, what a strange difference. It seemed minuscule but Pearl was one to over-think things.

"Steven, can you come here for a moment?" Garnet asked in her normal voice, which always sounded deep.

"Yea! Be right back!" Steven said to Ivory before running off over to Garnet. Pearl was the first to approach Ivory, Pearl wasn't acting as herself. As she greeted the gem, her mind had not decided on a tone to go for to introduce herself. Pearl blinked, with her mouth half-open, her mind went completely blank.

"I, uh… I'm Ivory, I mean...! Amethyst. My name is—" Pearl started, but it was no use. She couldn't get her thoughts together, despite usually being level-headed and smart. Ivory simply smiled at her stuttering, not to be rude, just thinking it was funny to see someone like Pearl so flustered. Amethyst was laughing in the back as well. The cyan blush rose to Pearl's face in an intense manner.

"Pearl, that's your name." Ivory stated, in a bit of questioning tone. "Right?"

"Th-That's my name, yes. How did you know?"

"Everyone kind of called out their names just now." Ivory gave another small smile. "U-Um… do you guys need any help or sh-should I just go?" she asked hesitantly, she stood up and put a hand on the back of her head, tracing her delicate fingers through the messy ponytail.

"Oh, gosh… you're so pretty." Pearl swooned at the cute gem in front of her. Ivory looked at Pearl in shock, and put her hands over her mouth and her cream skin turned a bright gold, that must've been her blushing.

"Pearl!" Amethyst scolded her, this sort of thing was usually the other way around… but Amethyst didn't really embarrass herself like **that**.

"Thank you?" Ivory replied, she wasn't used to compliments. "I-I'm sorry, I've been away f-from civilization for a _very_ long time." She stated, trying to use enough words to be polite but she wasn't used to raising her voice loud enough to the point where someone could actually hear her.

"Then you have to check this out!" Steven chimed in. He looked at Garnet to be sure their conversation was finished and he was going to another room, then proceeded to grab Ivory and pull her to the ladder, then let her go to climb up. He turned the TV back on, his show was still running. Ivory stood still at the bottom of the ladder, not daring to enter the loft. Steven climbed back down the ladder, slower as to be careful, and tugged on her hand. "Hey, it's over here. Come on." He smiled, Ivory looked at him then at Amethyst, who nodded to her, then looked down at Steven and followed him up the ladder, reluctantly.

"What is this?" Ivory asked to see something that looked like a papaya crying.

"The Crying Breakfast Friends." Steven replied, getting right back into the show but looked back at Ivory occasionally to see how she was responding to the program.

"It's just one of Steven's weird shows." Amethyst groaned the plopped herself right next to Steven on bed.

"Isn't ivory from animals, not the ground… like a mineral." Pearl chuckled nervously.

"I don't understand." Garnet muttered while pushing up her futuristic triangular shades.

"What?" Ivory looked over at Garnet, she seemed a bit jumpy around Garnet. "I-I was forged remains in the ground… I think." Ivory wasn't fully aware as to how she was formed, but she did know that she was found through a fossil.

"How did you get here exactly?" Amethyst rolled onto her back. "I thought you fell into that dark pit all those years ago."

"Um…" Ivory used her right hand to rub the side of her left arm, she acted like she was an eight-year old who was getting interrogated by her parents. A shiver ran down her spine, her shaking was visible for the moment she did then she sighed and tried to think of what happened. "There was a lion at the bottom, and you-know-who was there too. I fell into the lion's mane, it saved me." It didn't make a lot of sense, but it seemed like it caught her.

"Rose?" Pearl guessed, Ivory nodded reluctantly. "I was with Rose throughout the war, how did I not meet you then?" Ivory didn't respond, it sounded rhetorical. "How long were you with her?" Pearl continued. Ivory shook her head and mouthed something.

"Not long." Amethyst answered for her. "I met with Rose later, maybe an hour or two after she fell."

"I'm sorry I didn't stay." Ivory muttered, Amethyst thought Ivory had died all those years ago.

"Maybe you should've stayed down there." Amethyst groaned. "Maybe I should've too." She added quietly with a sigh, no one could hear that last part. Ivory sat silently now after the last hostile remark. After several minutes of silence she stood up and said.

"I should go, I came to thank Rose, but… she's not here." Ivory jumped off the ledge, not bothering with the ladder and started walking to the warp pad.

"W-Wait!" Pearl was curious about Ivory, Garnet was analyzing the situation, possibly trying to use her future vision to see what was going to happen in the long term. Garnet smiled and let events unfold. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"No where specific, I… wanted to thank Rose for healing me all those years ago. I guess it'd be better to find somewhere else to be." Ivory smiled and looked down, it seemed she didn't have anywhere to be, and she didn't know where to go.

"Why don't I come with you? Just for a-a little while, being by yourself can b-be scary, and confusing. B-Besides, I would like to know more a-about you." Pearl continued. "I know a nice place, and f-first comes to worst, you c-can stay here!" Pearl said.

"Woah, woah ,woah… She can't _stay_ here." Amethyst started.

"I see no threat with her." Garnet said while Steven stared at Ivory, making a gold blush rise to the new gem's cheeks.

"Can she pleeeeeeeease stay?" Steven begged, but before anyone could answer, Ivory voiced her own opinion, addressing the person who suggested it.

"I don't want to intrude Pearl, but I would like to talk with you." Ivory agreed.

"Alright! U-Um… Garnet, Amethyst, Steven. I'll be back later." Pearl smiled and ran over the warp pad, having a wide smile. She seemed very excited, Pearl looked like she was trembling with exhilaration. The ray of light carried the two gems away.

"She shouldn't be on Earth at all." Amethyst groaned and rolled over again. Garnet was quiet, Steven looked at Garnet to see if he should say anything, she shook her head so Steven remained silent.

"Perhaps you should stay close Pearl." Garnet suggested.

"I suppose that would be the smart thing to do." She chuckled. "Ivory, have you ever been to a beach?"

"What's that?" Ivory said curiously, Pearl smiled.

"That's a no." she grabbed Ivory's arm and pulled her out of the beach house and onto the shoreline.

"It's beautiful out here…" Were the last words that came out Ivory's mouth that the ones inside heard.

* * *

/Maybe I'm taking on too much, but I started watching Steven Universe a few weeks ago and now I'm obsessed with it. So, what better way than reading stories about it on FanFiction? Then, I got to the phase of writing it... So here it is. ^-^

I hope it's well-written and not too much. Thanks for reading!

 **Edit/Side note** : Ivory is an organic gem, but not a gem stone as it's not a mineral from rock. Organic gems include: Pearl, Jet, Ammolite, Coral, Amber and Ivory. Shell is also considered a gem under certain circumstances. However Ivory was most popular in the 18th century, it had been prized for thousands of years but as of modern times, international restrictions have been set to protect ivory-bearing animals such as the elephant, wild boar, hippopotamus, warthog, sperm whale, walrus, seal lion, and narwhal. It also can be taken from fossils, which include dinosaurs. Imitation ivory is highly encouraged, as the use of doom palm seeds and tagua nuts are used to imitate the gem. I started research on gems before I started writing this. I wouldn't have titled this story "Ivory" if I wasn't sure this was considered a gem internationally.


	2. Natural

**Chapter 1: Natural**

Pearl and Ivory were climbing the mountain attached to the temple, the two were moving rather quickly but neither was going faster or slower than the other. The sun had vanished from sight which lead to a lovely violet sky.

"So, what did you know about Rose?" Pearl smiled. Ivory sat down at the top, looking down upon the temple, at the shore line and the sky.

"She said she wanted to stay here…" Ivory replied quietly. "She called this place home. At the time, I didn't understand why. It was just dark, and cold… but if this is what it became." She stopped, "I think it would've been worth it."

"She wouldn't have done anything if she didn't think it was worth it." Pearl chuckled. "Oh… I still wonder why she did."

"You love her." Ivory looked over the edge again.

"I'm sorry?"

"Why did you become part of the rebellion?" Ivory asked, to immediately change the subject, her tone becoming a hushed one. "I was neutral, I ran away… Why would you fight against your home?" she leaned over the edge.

"I didn't fight against my home. I fought for my home." Pearl said reluctantly, she wasn't sure if she should be talking to a stranger about her personal feelings.

"You didn't? As this your home?" Ivory continued, but Pearl stayed silent for a solid three minutes. "You can tell me anything. I mean… I don't really have anyone to tell in the first place." Pearl continued her silence until Ivory just smiled, as if she already understood. A cool breeze passed over the two, Pearl shivered slightly.

"F-Funny…" Pearl crossed her arms over her chest to maintain body heat.

"What is?" she looked over at the other gem, shivering. "Are you cold?" Ivory thought gems couldn't get cold, and she was right. They shouldn't. Pearl was quiet again, Ivory placed her hands in front of her and spread them apart at an equal distance. A small cloth appeared then grew into a jacket. She handed it over to Pearl and wrapped it around her.

"Where did you come from?" Pearl looked over the edge, remembering what happened to Amethyst.

"Either Tagua nuts or elephants and the sort." Pearl shook her head at Ivory's reply.

"That's not what I meant."

"I was trapped, some how..." Ivory muttered, "I can't remember but that's what they told me. I think something about evacuating this planet, the battle was lost… I can't remember what. When I got there, some gem told me to reveal anything I knew about Rose Quartz, they thought I was lying when I told her she saved my life and nothing more." she added. "They said they'd ensure my freedom if I told them everything, but there wasn't anything else they needed to know about her. They're still trying to see if—" There was a moment of silence Pearl was about to ask her next question but Ivory continued speaking first. "I have to tell you something."

"If what?" Pearl asked. Ivory shook her head, knowing Pearl would focus on what she said before."Is it Peridot?" Ivory hesitantly nodded her head. Pearl grabbed Ivory with her left hand and summoned her spear with her right. "You came to us, while working for Peridot?! We're against her!"

"I know! So I need you to do something!" Ivory shouted. "I need you to bubble me." Ivory requested, she looked down. "Or, I need to jump." she looked over the edge.

"You'll shatter, you won't be able to heal." Pearl reminded her. Ivory nodded, she was well aware of what would happen.

"I don't want to help them, it's better this way."

"You want to be trapped again?" Pearl let go of Ivory's arm. "You're an informant for Peridot, why would she pick you if you weren't rebellious. There are many other Homeworld gems, why would she pick you for this job?"

"I-I don't really know… I-I can't bubble, I'm n-not strong or powerful, I can't fuse..." she started.

"You can't fuse?" Pearl found this interesting, Ivory nodded in shame. "So, you're basically saying, you're weak." Pearl said, Ivory looked down again and took a step closer.

"Yes."

"That's why she sent you then."

"What?"

"You can't fuse… So you can't trap us like Lapis did with Jasper. You're not powerful like Lapis was, so we wouldn't see you as a threat. You can't bubble either, which means you couldn't bubble us even if you were able to defeat us..." Pearl thought carefully. "Did you come alone?" Pearl grabbed her wrists again. Ivory flustered, and her cheeks blushed bright gold again.

"I-I did." she said and looked over the edge again. "I think."

"You keep looking down. Why?" Pearl grabbed her wrists tighter, Ivory flinched, knowing full well she was a prisoner, no matter whom she went to.

"I heard they were sending someone else too… S-Someone to rival you guys." Ivory said quietly, Pearl frowned and jumped off the mountain pulling Ivory down with her. "Wh-What are you doing?!" she was panicking, but they landed softly.

"You're going to tell everyone what you just told me." Pearl demanded.

"H-How can I-I?" Ivory covered her face with her hands.

"Look, you want to help us. Don't you?" Pearl asked, Ivory nodded slowly. "Do you remember what Rose did? Do it for her." That meant more to Pearl than anyone else in this universe.

"G-Garnet, Amethyst, St-Steven." Ivory spoke quietly so no one heard.

"Everyone." Pearl said, the two by the TV looked over at the door and Garnet left her room a couple seconds later. "Ivory is here to deliver a message." she said, was Pearl lying for Ivory? Or was it something she wanted to keep private until later, at least, so Steven wouldn't hear.

"P-Peridot is sending someone." she said quietly.

"Ummm, what?" Amethyst coughed. "Speak up." she put her hands on her hips, Ivory took a deep breath and spoke much louder.

"Peridot is sending a gem. A strong one, some who can level all of you apparently."

"That's what Lapis said about Jasper." Amethyst chuckled.

"I-I heard her name w-was Verdite." Ivory said quickly. "That's all I know! I swear!"

"Did Peridot tell you anything? Anything specifically?" Garnet inquired.

"N-Not to trust you, but she wanted me to fuse with, um..." Ivory looked over at Amethyst. "She said something about staying away from Amethyst once I did fuse."

"But you don't know how." Pearl reminded her.

"Peridot doesn't know that..." Ivory rubbed her shoulder.

"I can teach you!" Steven chimed in.

"Steven, I don't think—" Pearl started.

"Come on…! She doesn't know how! And she's telling you everything she knows. Can't I do this for her?!" Steven whined, but it was a playful kind of whine. Where he wasn't complaining, he was more begging than anything else.

"Well I suppose, it won't hurt, but if there's one sign of trouble between you two. I'm breaking it up." Pearl crossed her arms to show she was being stern.

"Uh, I-I… um..." White tights appeared on Ivory and the dress became more of a shirt and then shorts. "O-Okay." Ivory wasn't sure of this. She looked down at Steven and shape-shifted to his size.

"Wow, you're really good at that." Steven was amazed her ability to change in an instant, he took her hands. "Have you ever seen someone fuse?" he asked, Ivory shook her head. "Well, how about dance?" he smiled, Ivory thought for a moment and nodded. "Well, it's like that. I'll lead for this one, okay?" the two started, moving left and right, back and forth. Then he spun her, and she spun him back. Steven chuckled. "Wow, you're a natural at this." Then she tripped on top of him, the two laughed. Steven's laugh was more natural, whereas Ivory's was awkward and nervous. "Spoke too soon." Ivory got off of him, then Steven stood up.

"That's okay, let's try again." he took her hands again. "You can lead this time if you want." Ivory stood still for several seconds. "Um… Are you going to do anything?"

"Yes." she nodded. "Follow my lead." she sighed, and placed one hand on his waist, her other with his hand. "Put your other hand on my shoulder." Steven nodded and did as directed. "Start on your left foot." Three paces to left, two to the right, on to the left, step back, step forward, spin and switch places, repeat… "Put your hand above your head." Steven lifted his hand above his head, Ivory placed two fingers above his hand and spun him 720 degrees. "Lean back." Steven almost tripped with spinning so quickly then lean back like that, but she caught him, getting very close. After a moment, she lifted him back to his normal balance and stepped back nervously. Steven stared at her, "You've never fused before?"

"N-No..." she replied. "Other gems kept me away because I was... _different_." she put an emphasis on the last word.

"Amethyst! Amethyst! Why don't you try?" Steven jeered.

"What?! With her? Nu-uh." Amethyst shook her head. "I've attempted to fuse with her before, it ended badly." Amethyst denied immediately.

"Amethyst!" Pearl scolded.

"I-It's okay! Things got out of hand, she's entitled and I don't blame her." Ivory defend her former fusion trainer.

"Perhaps I can try." Garnet suggested. "I'm good with fusion after all." she walked up to Ivory, Steven stepped back. Ivory stretched back to her original form, she bowed deeply. Garnet bowed her head only, but Ivory didn't mind. Garnet put her hands behind her head and ran them down her torso, Ivory copied her, so Garnet stopped. "Ivory." she said sternly, Ivory jumped.

"D-Did I do something wrong?" she asked.

"Yes." she replied bluntly, Ivory flinched. "The process of fusion is supposed to be your own unique style, not someone else's. No wonder why you haven't made a fusion yet." she sighed. "You have to come up with your dance." Ivory looked down and nodded. "When you're ready." Ivory was coming up with the moves in her head, and traced them out by looking at the floor. Ivory walked up to Garnet and placed Garnet's left hand in her own.

"Ready." she stepped in a circle, 360 degrees, then moved in the opposite direction, switching the hands. Garnet repeated the move she started with, whereas Ivory now pointed her foot out and spun and jumped into the air. Ivory looked at Garnet right as she pulled Ivory into her arms. Garnet pushed Ivory out of her arms and apart to where the tips of their fingers were touching. Garnet then pulled Ivory's hands together and lifted Ivory over her back then back on her feet to lean her back, one foot on the ground and the other lifted high in the air. Garnet smiled and lifted Ivory back onto her feet.

"Not bad, but we were out of sync on that last part." Garnet ruffled her already messy hair, she sat back now to where Ivory was standing by herself. This continued for a minute.

"A-Are we done?" she asked, as if to make sure she was allowed to do something else, even though she had nothing to do.

"Actually, Ivory. I'd like to see how you'd do with me." Pearl was impressed that she was doing so well, but wanted to make sure it wasn't something that was to gain their trust. "I won't go easy on you."

"O-Okay." Ivory shuddered, she wasn't sure if failure would be good or bad in this situation. "Where do you want me?"  
"Wherever you're comfortable with." Pearl said and stood about 10 yards apart from Ivory. "Fusing with me is not easy. I am gem of balance, grace and purity, it will be challenging for a first-timer to even attempt to fuse with me." Ivory nodded. "Especially since you don't know my routine, you'll have to be spontaneous." she reminded Ivory once again.

"I've had to to do that the last two times." Ivory replied, then widened her stance and lowered her body. Pearl started, putting her hands high above her head, making the tips meet then spun and lowered herself down and looked back at Ivory. Ivory wrapped her back foot around her front foot and spun leading one hand out to her, then spinning the opposite direction, moving forward with the other hand outstretched. Pearl put her back foot out and stood up straight and lead up with the same spin from the beginning and leaped toward her grasping Ivory's hand… They were in perfect sync. There was a light on the back of Ivory's neck, and Pearl's gem was glowing.

"I think they're gonna fuse…!" Steven's jaw dropped. "Giant woman, giant woman, giant woman!" he cheered on. Ivory put her foot behind Pearl's and spun her back to where she was leaning back, looking into Ivory's eyes. She looked determined and focused, Ivory brought Pearl back onto her feet, and Pearl leaned Ivory back, then moved her arms around her waist and threw her up into the air, then spun with Ivory above her head. Ivory intentionally fell from Pearl's hands as Pearl was already prepared to catch. Pearl's hand were on the back of Ivory's neck and her waist while Ivory had her hands on Pearl's shoulders. Their foreheads laid against each other and their noses just barely touching. The two light up like the sun if it were only two miles away. However when the light faded, the gems were still standing there. "Aww..." Steven groaned.

"What happened?" Amethyst asked.

"I don't know..." Pearl replied. "She was in complete sync with me, unless she didn't consent." Everyone in the room looked at Ivory.

"I-I was nervous but, I was excited. I wanted to..." Ivory started.

"Maybe, it's better this way. It isn't right for two strangers to fuse immediately." Pearl brushed the whole thing off. "But, you were a wonderful dance partner." Pearl blushed and walked to her room rather quickly.

"S-So… should I go?" Ivory started heading for the warp pad.

"No." Garnet crossed her arms again, speaking firmly. "If you're one of Peridot's 'former' informants, then you need to stay here, where we can watch you." she explained.

"Right..." Ivory shrunk a little. "I-I don't need a babysitter, I can promise you." she continued.

"I'd like to trust you, but you're a stranger. I won't risk it." Garnet placed a comforting hand on Ivory's shoulder then turned to walk away.

"Can't your future vision tell you if she betrays you or not?" Steven asked, she stopped in her tracks. Garnet got on one knee, beckoned Steven to come over to her. She took off her shades and said as quietly as possible.

"I can't see her future."

* * *

/So it's been two days and I've gotten a good response from readers, so I'll try to keep it cool and a little slow but I definitely wanted to introduce the concept of fusion to Ivory and reveal the truth to the Gems. This chapter is a bit shorter than the first, so I won't overload anything yet. Thanks for reading.


	3. Run From It or Learn From It

**Chapter 2: Run From It or Learn From It**

"We'll have to have an informant go out there." the voice rang in Ivory's head, "It's time to take care of this once and for all. Unleash Bubble 25190, prepare the gem for field-work."

"Ma'am, I'm sorry but 25190 can't fuse or summon weapons, she's practically useless." Ivory looked out at the sea, she was put on one of the higher hands on the temple so she couldn't leave nor be a threat to Steven. Even when she was free to climb and move about, she was still trapped on the one hand.

"Exactly, they'll never see her as a threat. Besides, from what I've heard there's an orthorhombic one that she'll take great interest in. They might not even notice her at all, she's almost human." Ivory shivered as she remembered the dark smirk.

"That wasn't real… I couldn't have seen that, I was still part of that pendant." Ivory crossed her arms and shook her head, trying to remind herself what was real, and what wasn't. The cream colored gem sat on the stone cold hand and tried to get the thoughts out of her head.

"You mean, she won't actually do anything at all?"

"Oh, she'll do something. Give us the exact coordinates and their biggest weakness. Peridot's last log confirmed Jasper took them out easily the first time around. They can be beaten, supposedly Garnet... _a fusion_ , took Jasper out." Fusion… They took it like it was an insult, like it was disgusting to their kind. What happened?

"Who are you sending to take them out ma'am?"

"25133 and 75271 to form 30290."

"They'll be ready to go after a weeks deployment of 25190." _They couldn't even say their names._ _ **They couldn't even say my name.**_ Ivory shook her head, these weren't real memories.

"You'll have to land on Earth and walk to a warp pad to get to Kindergarten." This was a real memory though, a problematic one. "Avoid the Crystal Gems, they will not show you mercy. They will destroy you and hold you captive. If you succeed to activate Kindergarten, your freedom is guaranteed by the Yellow Diamond." the voice continued, _I would be captive here or there, it didn't—doesn't matter._

"Anything else?" Ivory asked.

"If you can, force fuse with Pearl." _I can't do that._

"What…?!"

"It'll be much easier to extract her from you and keep her contained, or even destroyed." Ivory held the back of her neck, it never felt that warm, it never light up, she never felt so relaxed and safe. She didn't want the only person who could make her feel that way, she couldn't do it.

"Ivory." a voice called out to her, she jumped a little. It wasn't even dawn yet, "Are you okay?" it was Amethyst.

"Oh, hi." Ivory smiled as if nothing was wrong.

"What are you still doing here?" Amethyst crossed her arms. "I know what you are, and there's no way Homeworld would just let you off, just like that. You're hiding something more."

"Wh-What?! No, I'm not… I-I've told you everything I know."

"Shush, keep quiet Steven is asleep." Amethyst scolded. "I'm going to let you off of this temple and you're going to stay far away from here. I know you're trouble, everything from Kindergarten is trouble. So, go." Amethyst summoned her whip.

"I-I swear I'm not doing anything. I'm not up to a-anything." Ivory continued, stepping back from Amethyst, her feet right against the edge of the palm.

"Yeah right." Amethyst replied sarcastically, Amethyst noticed Ivory's vulnerable state and took advantage of it. "Do us both a favor and come closer, or I'll push you off." Amethyst was bluffing, but Ivory believed that the one who freed her said they would show no mercy.

"I-I..." Ivory leaned back toward the edge, Amethyst stepped closer. If Ivory had a human heart, it would've been racing, if she could sweat, she would be.

"Ugh, come on! We both now how this going to end, make it easier for yourself." Amethyst continued. Ivory frowned and untied her ponytail and took off her headband, the two objects just vanishing like a gust of wind.

"No." Ivory replied, she was shy at times, but after millenniums of imprisonment and experiencing bliss after all those years. She wasn't willing to give that up. Ivory lifted one foot and fell back."

"Ivory!" Amethyst shouted down at her, Ivory smiled it was nice to see Amethyst cared. Ivory closed her eyes, waiting for impact. She wasn't like them, she's too durable, her gem would crack or shatter… Too hard to destroy, resistant to water, and works as a heat insulator but that doesn't mean she can't be damaged from a fall. Ivory felt the arms holding her, she had been caught by someone. Ivory looked up, there was only one person that could wear shades where there was hardly any light.

"G-Garnet..." Ivory muttered, looking at the taller gem. Ivory was mortified and covered her face with her hands, her face turning a vibrant yellow. "I-I'm sorry."

"Explain." Was the only word that came out of the fusion's mouth, Ivory wasn't sure as what to say. She could lie to both protect Amethyst and herself, or she could tell the truth and get them both in trouble.

"I was at the top, k-kind of zoning out. A-Amethyst came up there to check on me, b-but I got scared and fell off." Ivory lied, hating herself more and more with every word. Garnet set Ivory down, her facial expression not seeming to change but it was hard to tell in the dark.

"And if I ask Amethyst?" she replied.

"She should tell you something similar." Ivory lied again, hating herself even more. Honesty was one of her highest morals. Amethyst didn't come down though, so Garnet waited for her to. Ivory stood behind Garnet, covering her mouth and every second that passed made Ivory feel more and more corrupt. Several minutes passed, to at least a half an hour.

"Go inside, I'll come in a minute." Garnet said and started climbing the temple to get to the tallest hand. Ivory walked inside cautiously, trying to be as quiet as possible without running, or tripping, over anything. Ivory looked toward the TV, the bed in front of it had to of been where Steven was sleeping. Ivory walked up the steps silently, and looked at the sleeping Steven. He looked so peaceful, Ivory smiled and walked back down the steps and laid against the sofa by the stairs. Curled up a ball, all warm and cuddly. Minutes passed, and eventually turned into an hour. Dawn had arrived and there was no sign of either gem, Ivory stood up and looked out the window. _**Slam!**_

"Found her." Garnet spoke softly, despite the noise that was impossible not to hear. Amethyst groaned, as she had managed to pound herself against the window in attempt to swing from one of the temple's fingers. Apparently Amethyst had come up with a similar story. Neither of them was exactly lying, but neither was telling the whole truth either.

"Come on, I was just teasing…!" Amethyst whined.

"She could've cracked her gem." Garnet reminded her. Amethyst pouted as she was sent to her room like a child. Garnet said nothing as Amethyst walked away, she looked at Ivory with a small smile then went stoic again and moved on.

"R-Really it's not a big deal." Garnet crossed her arms at those words.

"You seem to take a lot of things seriously, except yourself." Garnet left Ivory with just those words, she had another two hours before some one else got up. Those two hours were filled with her thinking about it. _Do I take things too seriously? Does she think I'm a joke? Am I really worth nothing, to myself?_ The thought crawled back into her mind—They couldn't even say her name. They just gave her a number for her properties.

"Am I really having an identity crisis?" Ivory laughed at herself, then slapped her hand over her mouth. She was really treating herself like a joke. "No, no. I'm fine." she told herself, trying to make sure at least one thing was stable.

"Hey!" Steven rushed down the steps, slipping on the last step. He got up, and found Ivory immediately. "Are you familiar with food?" Ivory nodded, "Breakfast?" she nodded again. "Can you cook?" he continued, only because very rarely he had one of the gems cook for him.

"I usually make the best meals with the unborn." she smiled innocently.

"WHAT?!" Steven jumped with wide eyes.

"What what?" she seemed confused.

"Eggs, she means eggs." Garnet said in the background, Steven sighed.

"I think I can teach you how to make _eggs_." Ivory said 'eggs' strangely only because she wasn't too familiar with ingredients but she could easily recognize each item for what it was. Ivory searched the cabinets for something that could withstand heat, she picked up a pot and a skillet and laid the skillet on the stove. "Do you have a spray oil, or just oil?" she asked.

"It's in the top cabinet to your right." Steven said, she opened the cabinet and there it was. She picked it up and set it on the counter.

"Where's your chicken?" she asked.

"We don't have a chicken." Steven chuckled.

"A goose then? Or an ostrich?" it sounded like a joke, but she was being dead serious.

"No, we have thing called stores. Eggs come in packages, those are in the fridge, the big thing next to you." Steven opened the fridge and handed the package of eggs to her. There was spots for a dozen but four were missing. Ivory picked up two eggs and balanced them in one hand while she used the other to spray the skillet with the oil. She turned on the fire, Steven's eyes light up at the sight of fire. He would learn how cook rather easily, he was a very fast learner. Ivory cracked the eggs on the side of the skillet and dumped the fluid inside onto the skillet and instantly began to crackle.

"Do you have a place to dispose of this?" she asked again.

"Yea, in the kitchen island, there's a big drawer that holds the trash." Steven opened it as Ivory dropped the eggshells in the trash.

"Spatula?" she asked again, he opened the drawer above that one and pulled out a spatula. Ivory took it and after a minute flipped the eggs over. One of the yolks popped in the process but it was good enough for Steven. She searched through the cabinets to find a plate for Steven, and when she did she moved the eggs quickly from the skillet to the plate. "They can be served with spices."

"Salt and pepper?" he asked, Ivory shrugged. She had to read a little on the basics for humanity but it was extremely outdated, about 1,000 years outdated. He brought the salt and pepper, she used the salt and pepper evenly.

"Have a little and tell me if you like it." she handed him the plate nervously, she had no idea what she was doing in the first place but she had read a book. Steven grabbed a fork and ate it all under a minute. He looked at Ivory with stars in his eyes and shouted: "I wish to devour the unborn!"

"Steven! What is the meaning of..." Pearl started, but when she saw Ivory things started making sense. "Ivory, I think I need to teach you a few things about Earth." she walked up to the other gem, whom was panicking as she thought she had done something wrong.

"I-I'm sorry." Ivory apologized after being out of hearing distance from Steven.

"You don't need to be sorry, you don't know better." Pearl said, though the words she said were meant to be an excuse, it only felt like it was placing more blame on her. "I can teach you about Earth in an instant if you'll let me." she smiled, was it nice for her to feel in control of someone, or to have someone new around? Ivory couldn't tell how anyone was feeling at the moment.

"G-Go ahead, I want to learn more." Ivory said then looked over at Steven and added, "I'll be back later today." Then followed Pearl into her room, filled with waterfalls with a blue pastel color about the room and a violet sky with a multitude of stars... One that Ivory could remember as it matched the sky as it did last night. Ivory looked around the room in amazement. "Why is everything so beautiful?" she asked rhetorically.

"Oh, well, thank you." Pearl chuckled, "This is my home, this is how I am formed. This… This is my home." Ivory thought of her home, desolate, abandoned, death… Just a hole to stay in. She was only able to be found after many animals had died, at least. Pearl though, she was perfect in every way. Beautiful, elegant, graceful, strong, intelligent, confident and wise. Ivory… no she's was elegant, she needed to be carved to be beautiful, she wasn't elegant or graceful, she was clumsy, she wasn't strong either… in any way at all, and to be intelligent or wise, she hardly knew anything of Earth or how its life worked, and Ivory had no confidence whatsoever, she couldn't even take control of her own life. "Everything I have known, or ever known is in that book over there." Pearl started, "Most people can't write in a diary everyday, but when nothing happens and gems like us are hardly capable of sleep, that's when I write." Pearl explained, "Now you can start from the beginning or page 30271." Pearl instructed as she pulled a book piled up at least two meters high. The book had simple cover, it was aqua blue and had a branch of a golden tree with small white flowers on it.

"What is this?" she pointed at the cover.

"It's a tree." Pearl chuckled, "Do you not remember anything from the view yesterday?"

"I remember everything from yesterday… It looks like that tree, it was cut down awhile ago though..." Ivory started.

"Do you mean you saw my favorite tree?" Pearl blushed, knowing her tree was cut down when she had to reform. "That was a long way from here."

"I could've sworn I saw it." Ivory muttered, "I'll start reading." Pearl had elegant handwriting, perfect cursive. "U-Um, Pearl..." Ivory drained off all color. "I-I can't read this."

"Wh-What?!" Pearl looked at her in astonishment.

"I-I mean, I can r-read other languages and English, but this looks odd to me." Pearl smiled in understanding.

"Come and look here, I'll write something for you." Pearl got a piece of paper and pen and started writing in cursive. "I'll go in alphabetical order, you know what that is, right?" Ivory nodded, she started with lower case, it looked like a simple "a" but she didn't lift her pen off the page and continued with a "b" then a "c" and so forth. Ivory seemed to memorize every movement, and when Pearl was done showing her how she wrote, Ivory got to reading.

* * *

Steven sat outside of the Gems' door, waiting for Ivory to come out. The sky was a bright blue now, the sun setting in the center of the sky and brought the heat of 91 degrees back to Beach City.

"So, there's a new gem…?" Connie said, Connie is a young girl with brown skin and dark brown hair and wears a sleeveless sky-blue dress with a pale purplish lace around her waist, and powder blue flats. Steven nodded hastily and stood up, waving his hands around.

"She's not good, she..."Amethyst started.

"She looks a lot like Pearl and she's always really warm and has really messy hair and she's really shy, but she tries to make sure everything's good. She was actually sent by the Homeworld gems, to rescue Peridot or something… I-I don't really know. But she's super pretty and helpful." Steven ran to the fridge and picked up an egg. "She taught me how to cook this!" Amethyst groaned and walked away.

"Steven, I thought you already knew how to cook an egg." Connie replied.

"I did! But she does it in a special way, she cracks it on the skillet and not crushing it until it cracks…!" Steven smiled brightly with stars in his eyes, Connie giggled at him.

"She sounds nice." Connie stood up.

"Steven, you should go out and do something with Connie. Ivory might not be done until tomorrow or the next day, maybe not for a very long time." Pearl explained.

"But she said she'd see me later!" Steven replied.

"Maybe she thought she'd be back today, she didn't know what was in my room." Pearl said and checked the clock and nodded. "Downy time, I'll be back in a minute or so." Pearl stepped to the warp pad and warped away, most likely going to the hand that held the washer and dryer up there. Steven groaned, but he was used to being patient. He did have to wait two weeks for Pearl to regenerate, he would wait a few days to read a book. Steven had no clue how long the book was though. The door opened and showed Ivory standing in the doorway.

"Ivory!" Steven's eyes light up again, Connie looked at Ivory in concern. Connie knew how Ivory was made, she also knew that Homeworld gems were bad news, those two parts meant trouble; Even Amethyst said she was bad news. "You're back!"

"Yeah," Ivory said quietly and noticed the guest. "Um, wh-who is that?" Ivory asked as she looked at Connie. Connie wasn't sure how to act with a gem, when she was with Pearl she was an instructor and that she didn't understand humans.

"This is Connie, she's my friend!" Steven announced, Connie blushed, despite her concern she was still nervous to be introduced to anyone.

"H-Hi..." Connie shrugged, not looking at Ivory in embarrassment.

"Hello." Ivory was slightly panicking on the inside, but the book definitely said Connie was nice and good friends with Steven, but that she was also a talented swordsman. "I've read about you." she added, Connie's face turned red.

"Pearl writes about me?" Connie looked up at Ivory, Ivory nodded.

"Very kindly, she gets confused but I think I have a better understanding." Ivory replied. Ivory responded Rose differently from other gems like Amethyst or other gems from those many years ago, Rose was sympathetic and kind, and passionate. Rose was understanding, and could relate to humans and Ivory learned to understand others as Rose did.

* * *

It wasn't long before Pearl came back from the washer and dryer's hand and had a massive amount of coral colored t-shirts.

"Then what happened?!" Steven's voice echoed from the loft where he slept.

"That sounds really painful." Connie cringed.

"Well, after I fell a long, long way down… I was caught by Lion." Ivory explained, Pearl's eyes widened. She didn't think Ivory would be able to finish the book before the day ended, nevertheless finish her journal in three hours. Then, there was always the idea that Ivory gave up on the book and left Pearl's room. "However, I thought I had died. I was scared, and sad, and angry, but I saw one thing that brought me some comfort." Ivory paused, "Your mother reached in and pulled me out, her hand reaching for me was something that gave me the will to continue." Pearl smiled at her words as the thought of seeing Rose again both brought her joy and sorrow.

"What was mom like?" Steven asked, his voice getting serious. Ivory didn't know what Steven was like most of the time, like Connie and the Crystal Gems did. Steven was rarely serious, so this definitely caught their attention.

"I didn't get to stay with her long, but she was kind to me and wanted to make sure I was okay… She didn't even ask if I was part of the rebellion or not, I guess, she just knew I was against the entire war." Ivory gave a small smile, "I heard Tourmaline met Rose for a longer period than me, I wish I kept up with him."

"Him?" Pearl muttered from the bottom of the stairs. This caught the others' attention, Pearl knew as everyone else did that all gems had no gender but were all called "she" and "her".

"Tourmaline wanted to be different from all other gems, so he likes being called a 'he'. I don't blame him." Ivory continued, "Turquoise is hanging out with him if I remember right."

"Turquoise? Didn't she attack Rose?" Pearl asked, Ivory shrugged. "I thought I split her in half..."

"Dunno." Ivory replied, looking at the floor. Ivory was blushing again, Connie looked at Ivory then at Pearl, and then back at Ivory and giggled again.

"Hey, Steven. Let's climb the mountain and have picnic up there, like we did a couple months ago." Connie suggested, Steven looked at Ivory and then at Connie and nodded with a huge smile.

"Okay, but we'll have to pack food now." Steven reminded her.

"No, it's fine. I can pack something for the two of you and bring it up later." Pearl said.

"Thanks Pearl! Come on Connie, let's go!" Steven ran down the stairs, Connie running behind him. Steven stopped as they got to the bottom and started running right next to each other instead.

"Those two are cute like you wrote." Ivory said after they had gotten out of sight. "I hope things work out between them."

"Did I write that?" Pearl looked at Ivory strangely.

"Subtext." Ivory replied, "Would you like me to help?" Ivory asked, while heading for the kitchen.

"Did you finish the journal?"

"Yea, why?"

"It's really long, don't you think?" Pearl said aghast, Ivory smiled.

"One of the nice perks of being me is I can read, write and learn very quickly." Ivory smiled and opened the fridge and pulled out different ingredients, all of them went together to make something. Pearl and Ivory started cooking, Ivory working with hot dogs at the stove, and Pearl making sandwiches.

"Wish I had that ability." Pearl chuckled again, slightly blushing because that book had her vivid description of Rose Quartz in it. _Oh, how embarrassing…_ Pearl thought.

"You shouldn't say that." Ivory wanted to tell her how she thought of Pearl, but Ivory wasn't confident enough to. "Being me, I'm easily influenced and it gets me into trouble." Ivory looked at her hands, "A lot of trouble."

"Influence? Like under the influence of alcohol?" Pearl cringed and started wrapping the sandwiches and placing them in a picnic basket. "Or something else?"

"No, nothing like that." Ivory turned the water off, the hot dogs were done cooking. "Tin foil right?" Ivory asked, Pearl nodded. "Persuasion is a better word, I guess." Ivory shrugged, "Have you… ever met Jasper?"

"Yes… Yes, I have." Pearl winced at the sound of her name. "She's at the bottom of the ocean as Malachite right now."

"Well, she… She called me a traitor when I said I didn't want to fight in the war against the rebellion. She went to hit me and..." Ivory remembered her friend, Jet, Ivory had no idea what happened to Jet. "I fought her, to protect my friend. I… I lost. My punishment was to be branded but I fought again, a-and I ran again... I found myself alone, but there was actually someone else there. Her name was Lapis, sh-she told me to just let them do it, or get a worse treatment. So I-I came back, but they said I deserved much worse than what I was going to get. I was beside a volcano a-and..." Ivory wrapped the hot dog in the tin foil and covered her mouth with her hand as tears started forming from her eyes.

"I understand." Pearl said, and put a hand on Ivory's shoulder.

"N-No, you don't. Sh-She..." Ivory swallowed in attempt to gain some part of her voice again, "She made me kneel in a fumarole, then bow." Pearl gasped, she knew all organic gems were much weaker than any other metal or mineral. "It's why I have to wear a pair of stupid gloves…!" Ivory bit her lip and wiped her eyes quickly. Pearl didn't know how to respond, but she did know how Steven responded when she was crying. Pearl hesitantly wrapped her arms around Ivory and said the same words Steven said to her.

"Well… I think you're pretty great."

* * *

/ References. I hope everyone who is reading this has seen Rose's Scabbard. Oh, plus those numbers aren't random. They do apply to the gems the illusions talking about them. Thanks for reading everyone!


	4. Broken Bonds

**Chapter 3: Broken Bonds**

"Here you guys go." Pearl handed over the picnic basket to Connie and Steven, juice boxes, sandwiches, hot dogs and the sort…

"Thanks!" Steven exclaimed, and picked up a juice box for himself and Connie and handed it over to the smiling girl.

"Alright, Steven. We'll leave you two, to it." Pearl smiled and started walking down the mountain side, Ivory waiting a yard or two down. The conversation started all over again but sun was reaching to the east end of town, another hour or two would lead to sunset. "Um, Steven. You should come down in an hour or two, a-at least before it gets dark, okay?"

"Okay!" Steven replied.

"Thank you Pearl!" Connie shouted at Pearl. _Funny, she usually doesn't talk to me._ Pearl thought and stepped down to meet with Ivory whom was still just smiling and looking up at the two.

"They're just a phase." Pearl said.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Ivory replied, "I wouldn't like to think that you're a phase for anyone." Ivory added, Pearl thought about Rose at the moment and told herself that it wasn't that way.

"You never know I guess..." Pearl muttered, and continued down the hill with Ivory following shortly behind. "Was there someone you were really close with, and they just… left you for something else?" Ivory stopped in her tracks, but Pearl kept going.

"Um..." Ivory started moving again, jogging down to catch up. "Yes, there was someone like that. I'd rather not talk about them, though. I-I can't remember much about them anyway." Ivory lied again, Ivory remembered everything about them.

"Then you were just a phase to them." Pearl answered bluntly.

"Is Steven just a phase for you?" Ivory asked, feeling slightly offended. "Or were you a phase to someone?"

"Steven isn't a phase, she won't ever be a phase."

"Steven is a he, isn't he?" Ivory crossed her arms, the wind blew again and Pearl shivered again. Ivory put a hand on Pearl's shoulder and jacket from the night before appeared on her shoulders.

"How did you do that?" Pearl ignored her last comment, Ivory just shrugged. "Gems should only be able to manipulate their own illusions." Pearl added, their illusions being the presentation of their bodies.

"I just had that ability for, well, ever." Ivory looked at her palms in thought of the burns again, "I wonder..." Ivory looked at Pearl. "Does your gem always look rough?"

"Almost always, but there was one time where… It felt smooth." Pearl felt her forehead, it was rough now, but it wasn't when Ivory arrived. "Do you have an effect on others?"

"I don't know..." Ivory replied laconically, "I'm beginning to think so." There was a figure at the end of the trail to the mountain. The hair made it apparent as to who it was, Garnet.

"Pearl! Something has come up!" Garnet shouted up the hill to Pearl.

"What about Steven?!" Pearl started running down the hill, Garnet didn't say anything else and started running for the warp pad. "At least she's talking to me, remember that." Pearl told herself.

"What's going on?" Ivory asked, running along side Pearl. Refusing to just stay back this time.

"There must be something going on, perhaps a corrupted gem or Peridot." Pearl answered and ran through the beach house and onto the warp pad.

"Ugh, why is she here?" Amethyst groaned. "She'll just slow us down."

"We should get whatever help offered, however..." Garnet started, "Ivory, you don't need to come along."

"I want to." Ivory said. There was no response from Garnet.

"Just this once, but be careful." Garnet said after a minute, in all of their minds they thought of Steven being alone but the most of them figured he would be more safe there then where they were about to go, except Ivory. What is this was homeworld trying to distract the Crystal Gems from Steven so they could take him away? They'd have to have another escort or informant on Earth to do that.

* * *

The place was silent except for the few footsteps coming from the gems behind Ivory. The place was thrashed it was on a small island called Seychelles, and with it there was a small hut on the shore. They were very, _very_ far home. Palm trees were leaning away from the shore and there was a large high tide in one spot, something had crawled up from sea… something big.

"Could it be that Malachite is here?" Pearl asked, touching her forehead and producing her spear—a glowing pearlescent spear that seemed to grow or shrink but as of now it was a little shorter than Pearl herself.

"I don't see her with my future vision." Garnet said, "Take caution." The three walked together, while Ivory stayed on the warp pad. The Crystal Gems walked into the trees looking for anything that suggest Malachite, Peridot, or a corrupted gem. Ivory stayed where she was, though this place was secluded, that didn't mean there weren't humans somewhere close. Ivory looked at the trees, they were bent back for a bit, but then leaned away from the warp pad. Ivory walked toward the trees but stepped in where the trees stopped bending. The other gems weren't far away from where Ivory was, so that brought a sense of comfort but she didn't expect this. Two gems lying on the ground apart, each having the silhouette of their bodies. Ivory picked the two gems up, one a blue pendeloque with a vitreous luster, and another a red marquise gem with a similar vitreous luster. Why did these two look similar to her? Ivory sat down for a minute to think as to how these looked familiar, she then decided it was better not to know and to hand them over to the others and get them bubbled. Ivory took exactly one step when both gems light up. The pendeloque gem formed a girl with sky blue skin, and her hair being a navy-blue hair in a similar pixie cut to Pearl's, dark blue eyes, wearing a flowing, navy-blue skirt, which is knee-length with a downward-facing dark blue triangle with a backless, halter crop-top with an upward-facing dark blue triangle that ties into a blue ribbon on the back of her shoulders, and is barefoot. The gem was on her back, as this gem wasn't facing Ivory, but she quickly turned around to face the other gem that Ivory was once holding.

"Ivory?" the gem spoke to her, Ivory recognized her in a moment.

"Lapis?!" Ivory half-whispered, half-screamed her name. Lapis looked past Ivory in an instant, to see the other gem forming. This gem, had light-tangerine skin and orange tinted long hair like Amethyst, but much taller and maybe more muscular than Garnet. This gem was much more intimidating. She wears a pale-red tank-top with a mahogany, V-neck collar that connects to form a yellow diamond emblem, maroon leggings, and red boots with brown tips. The gem was placed on the center of her face, as the nose.

"Ivory, step back. We need to leave." Lapis said, as the other gem began panting to catch her breath.

"That's Jasper… she's the one who burned my arms and legs. You told me to go to her and accept my punishment..." the memories flooded her mind.

"You… You brat!" Jasper screamed at Lapis. Ivory couldn't decide if she wanted to help Jasper hurt Lapis for convincing her to be hurt by Jasper, or help Lapis hurt Jasper for hurting her in the first place. The Crystal Gems heard the scream by Jasper and started heading back to where they started.

"Ivory, step back! Trust me!" Lapis demanded.

"No, I-Ivory isn't it? She's a traitor, she tried to trap me under the sea for eternity." Jasper was trying to persuade Ivory to stay out of it, and Lapis was doing the same thing. Lapis was still too damaged to fly away yet so fleeing wasn't an option and Jasper would never back down from a fight. "Get out of my way." she repeated getting closer to Ivory. Ivory stepped even closer to Jasper and touched her shoulder, wrapping her hands in scarves and blindfolding her. Ivory grabbed Lapis' hands.

"I know you want to flee, but there isn't a way until we beat her again."

"We can't fight her like this!" Lapis reminded Ivory, Ivory nodded in agreement which only meant for thing for them to do.

"You want to be free from all this, right? You hate Jasper for imprisoning you, you just want to go home, or at least feel safe. I hate to ask this of you, but please fuse with me." Ivory begged.

"What?! I'm not going to fuse right after—" Lapis started.

"I know, I know. This isn't to win, this isn't to feel strong, this is to prevent this from ever happening again. I'm so sorry." Ivory held Lapis' hands gingerly and let them go. "It is your decision." Lapis looked at Jasper whom was tearing the scarves apart now.

"Fine, but after this. I'm gone." Lapis said, making it clear she wanted no part of this anymore.

"When I lean you back, put your hand on the back of my neck, okay?" Ivory instructed, so far that was the only thing she knew the ever being close to fusing. "Remember that you're doing this to be free, nothing else." Lapis looked at Jasper once more and nodded. The two started together, Ivory's hands on her waist, and the other holding her hand, like wise Lapis' other hand was on Ivory's shoulder. The two moved one step forward and back then turned sharply toward Jasper and again at 90 degrees away from her. The two leaned slightly back and turned once again, this time their gems starting to glow. Ivory dropped her other hand to Lapis' waist as well and lifted her while spinning then dropped her back to the ground and leaned her back very, very low. One hand on her gem and the other by her waist again. Lapis' hands were where Ivory said they needed to be, on her neck. The two vanished and blinding light formed around the two as they formed into a woman at least 6'2" with one set of arms but two sets of eyes, one being the dark blue resembling Lapis and the lower pair being brown to represent Ivory. The gems clearly very close to each other as they were both on the spinal cord.

"Oh, great. Another fusion?" Jasper groaned as he removed the blindfold. Their skin was a vibrant blue with moss green hair that went down to the back of her knees in a messy fashion and body suit like Garnet's but had diagonal stripes of faint purple and yellow blended in with her blue skin tone about the torso but the legs part were the same moss green. This giant woman was barefoot as Lapis' feet would be, but had a dark blue paint around the ankles but seemed to be designed more like burns, but they were not vulnerable or sensitive in anyway like that.

"Ivory?!" the three gems came in to see the new fusion.

"You!" the new gem fusion shouted at the sight of the Crystal Gems, but this was the Lapis part.

"Don't worry about them, focus on being free from them all and how to do that. Start with the one who is still trying to imprison you." the Ivory side spoke to Lapis, the Crystal Gems stood back as the fusion drew two sai, then connected the handles together to make a double edged blade, and stood at the ready for Jasper to attack. Jasper stood up straight then stepped one foot back and comet charged at the fusion, but instantly blocked with the handle of the sword, then thrown off into one of the few non-bending trees in the area.

"I'm ending this Lapis!" Jasper shouted at the fusion. No such luck with Jasper's comet charge, she tried to spin dash to try and hurt this fusion. Curling herself into a ball and flying forward with alarming speed.

"I'm not Lapis." the voice now was entirely new, "It's Chrysocolla." This attack ends things much quicker than Jasper expected as all Chrysocolla had to do was point the blade in Jasper's way, almost slicing the gem in two. Jasper was only a gem now, she had no form. Garnet automatically bubbled Jasper and tapped the bubble to go back to the temple. The two were about to de-fuse, but Ivory told her Lapis one last thing. _I'm giving you most of my strength so you can escape if necessary, what you do from this point is entirely your decision._ The two defused and left Ivory leaning Lapis back like before.

"Ivory! What are you doing?! Fusing with her?!" Pearl shouted. Ivory lifted Lapis onto her feet, and used her body like a gem-shield.

"We were going to be attacked by Jasper it was all we could do." Ivory defended.

"Grab her! She needs to be bubbled!" Garnet demanded. Ivory looked back at Lapis, whom was looking for a way to run.

"No she doesn't! She's not a threat!" Ivory defended yet again.

"She's too powerful, she'll just go back to homeworld and tell—" Garnet continued.

"You think she'd go back to Homeworld after everything that has happened? Leave her be." Ivory continued to defend Lapis, Lapis took a step towards her escape. Ivory stepped with her to make sure she blocked Lapis from any attack.

"We can't risk it!" Amethyst shouted, summoning her whip to grab the two of them.

"What if I could guarantee you that she's not a risk?!" Ivory stepped back again to protect Lapis.

"Ivory, I have to go." Lapis said, spreading her wings.

"Wait a minute!" Ivory grabbed her wrist, lightly so if she really needed to flee she could escape Ivory's grip.

"You can't guarantee that! No one can!" Pearl groaned.

"What if she stayed with you? What if she stayed with me? I think she can trust me to a certain extent…!" Ivory looked back at Lapis and let go of her wrist. "She doesn't trust you, and I can understand why. I don't fully trust you guys either! You have to give her a chance."

"I'm not staying with them!" Lapis cried.

"Then stay with me… Stay with Steven and Connie." Ivory said, "Have you met Steven?" Ivory asked, Lapis nodded. "Can you at least give her the chance to stay with Steven and I, for a night or two. Then she can go wherever she likes, except back to Homeworld."

"I'm willing to negotiate that much." Garnet said after a minute.

"Garnet!" Amethyst and Pearl yelled at Garnet.

"If she really is no threat then we don't have to worry about her, but it has to be proved." Garnet continued, "She wasn't hostile around Steven either… mostly."

"Lapis, are you… willing. I know you don't want to be imprisoned anymore, but this is probably the best way so Homeworld nor the Crystal Gems here will be after you." Ivory looked at Lapis directly, but looked down at her feet soon after out of embarrassment. It felt like she lied again by telling her she could be free immediately, despite not saying her immediate freedom directly.

* * *

As the warp pad light up once again, the sky changing from a bright daylight to a blue-black sky made all the gems rub their eyes, it had been two and a half hours.

"Steven?" Pearl looked around the beach house for the two but there was no one else here. "He must still be at the top." she added and exited the beach house.

"If you think you're completely out of this, then you are soooo wrong." Amethyst reminded Ivory and Lapis.

"Not yet." Ivory replied, "Amethyst, I know how you used to be and I'm sorry what happened, happened. But this is not the time or place to be angry about it, plus it's been at least six thousand years."

"Whatever." Amethyst grumbled, Garnet paid no attention to the two arguing. A minute later, Steven walked in, apparently he was at the Maheswaran residence. Steven's eyes light up at the sight of a returning gem.

"Lapis."

* * *

/Nice to hear about Lapis right? I really like her, and I wanted to start a mission. I figured this was a good one. Thanks for reading!

Fun Fact: Malachite is toxic in hot water.


	5. Waterproof

**Chapter 4: Waterproof**

"25190? Come in." a voice called over, they were calling over to Ivory. Whoever it was wanted a confirmation for the escort to come. Ivory ran out of the beach house with haste, hoping no one else heard the voice. "25190, come in!" it repeated.

"What is it?" Ivory said hastily.

"What is going on?! You haven't made a report in the last two days! You're supposed to report every 12 hours!" the gem over the communicator scolded Ivory.

"I haven't had much time, the Crystal Gems are much stronger than any escort or informant could've told you. It's best to leave Earth alone."

"Not an option. How many are there?" they continued.

"Six of them." Ivory replied.

"They've recruited two new gems?"

"I'm not sure." There was a moment of silence.

"Which of them is the most powerful?"

"They're all very powerful. I think the fusion one is though."

"Ugh, a fusion." the receiver cringed, "Name?"

"Garnet." Ivory replied, sadly. She didn't want to give this information but she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do in the first place.

"Have you located the kindergarten?"

"Not yet."

"Have you found Peridot?"

"Not yet." Ivory repeated.

"This is a poor way to earn your freedom 25190; locate Peridot or the kindergarten and reactivate it or when the escort arrives you will be bubbled a.s.a.p."

"I'm working on it. I have no method of—" Ivory started.

"I'm sending you the coordinates of where the kindergarten is, and also the three nearest warp pads. Get moving, and I want a report in six to 12 hours, otherwise I'll report you to the diamonds."

"Yes, ma'am." the coordinates were sent straight away, and instructions to reactivate the kindergarten followed.

"What are you doing?" Amethyst stood behind Ivory.

"Amethyst?" Ivory turned to look at Amethyst calmly, if she panicked it'd only make things worse. Don't admit to jumping, or being scared. "What up?"

"Who were you just talking to?" Amethyst got in Ivory's face.

"To myself, hoping that I'm not causing trouble for anyone."

"In your position, you're causing someone trouble. At least trouble for me, and Lapis." Amethyst pushed her on her stomach. "You remind me of everything I hate about myself, you should just leave."

"I-I can't do that now, I have to stay Lapis for now. If I leave her alone."

"She'll have Steven, she probably trusts him more than you, no one here trusts you. Just go." Amethyst took a step back. "Go, now!" Amethyst was getting angry again.

"I told you I can't. I don't want to tear your group apart, but I have to stay until the escort arrives." Ivory repeated.

"We can handle your 'escort' without your help. Get out of here." Amethyst repeated. Ivory looked at Lapis and Steven inside, they were laughing, Pearl and Garnet were standing apart but both watching the two. They didn't need her, Amethyst was right.

"I'm going." Ivory pushed past Amethyst and went inside, to get on the warp pad.

"Ivory? Where are you going?" Pearl asked, in a demanding tone. Pearl was not happy with Ivory defending Lapis the way she did.

"I'm sorry. I have to leave." Ivory said and vanished with the light. She reappeared in kindergarten, she was wondering whether to activate it first, or just lie down and think for awhile but she wasn't able to choose either.

"This is Peridot attempting to reach Yellow Diamond, _again_ , I still have no clue where my informant and escort have gone off to. I am at the kindergarten once more, attempting to activate it. The same- Ending transmission, there's someone here." Peridot was speaking to no one, the equipment here wouldn't be capable to reach Homeworld without a satellite.

"What are you doing here?" Ivory asked, not sure how to respond in this situation. Peridot has light-green skin and eyes tinted green by her visor. Her fingers are not directly attached to her body, but instead levitate around where her palm would be. Peridot's hair is pale greenish-yellow, and styled into a tetrahedron shape. She wears a sleeveless, green, V-neck bodysuit, light green large boots, er, boot, and armguards. Her bodysuit is mostly medium green, with a dark-green diamond outline around the cut out of her neck area; meeting together to a pale-yellow diamond symbol at the front, below the diamond symbol, with a dark-green portion between her chest and leggings. Her gem is on her forehead, and is shaped like an upside-down triangle with rounded edges, most likely a mixed-cut.

"Who are you?" Peridot said, instead of answering Ivory's question.

"I asked first." Ivory came closer. Peridot was preparing to blast her, but was hesitant as Ivory seemed like she was genuinely just curious and didn't care for what this place was… or she already knew what it was.

"Too bad." Peridot didn't care to answer. Ivory was about to lose her patience with everything, with Amethyst hating her at every opportune moment, the other Crystal Gems not trusting her, which they had a right to, and Lapis feeling like Ivory lied to her, Ivory was about to smash everything in her path.

"Tell me right now." Ivory making her tone much more hostile, Peridot noticed this and prepared her blaster protrusion. Ivory smacked her weapon down and got in her face, getting much more aggressive. "Now!" Ivory began to crush her armguards.

"Fine, fine, fine, fine!" Peridot screamed, "I'm here to reactivate the kindergarten, you happy?"

"No." Ivory growled but lost her aggression, and let Peridot go. She already knew what Peridot was doing but she wanted to do that for some other reason. "I'm an informant sent from Homeworld, my code is 25190."

"65334- Peridot. Now get out of my way." Peridot pushed Ivory out of the way and fixed her armguard. The warp pad light up again, Peridot looked back at Ivory and cringed, "Tell me you didn't bring those clods with you!"

"Whoops." Ivory smirked, and grabbed Peridot's arms again to prevent her from escaping.

"Ugh…! NOT AGAIN!" Peridot struggled to try and get one hand free and detach the other but Ivory's grip was too firm on her.

"Hold her!" Garnet shouted from afar.

"You're committing treason! Are you aware of that?! Let me go before I report you!"

"Let go?" Ivory looked at Peridot's armguards for the buttons on the side, and clicked them both, then threw Peridot toward the Crystal Gems. "Didn't say how." Ivory groaned.

"You little..." Peridot found her feet but Garnet wrapped her arms around Peridot, trying to decide what to do with her.

"What are you waiting for? Make her retreat into her gem!" Pearl exclaimed. Garnet was hesitating, Peridot was not going to get free any time soon. Garnet hands light up and her gauntlets appeared, she lifted one hand up and hit Peridot upside the head, hard, making her retreat into her gem.

"Done." Garnet said, and bubbled the triangular gem. "That's all the homeworld gems on this planet so far."

"Not entirely." Amethyst crossed her arms.

"I want to get away from you all, I don't want any trouble." Lapis reminded Amethyst once again, but glared at Ivory. Ivory didn't say anything but she knew it was meant for her; Amethyst groaned and fell on her back.

"Can we just go home? It's late and I'm tired of being here." Amethyst whined, everyone knew why Amethyst was acting this way, because she wasn't really like this, Ivory reminded her of kindergarten and it's one of the major reasons she's insecure.

"I suppose. How did you know Peridot was here, Ivory?" Pearl looked over at Ivory, as well as everyone else, including Steven and Lapis.

"I didn't." Ivory admitted, she didn't want to lie about that. There was no point.

* * *

Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Lapis, Ivory and Steven were lying on the floor with a bunch of blankets and pillows.

"Steven, you know we don't need to sleep right?" Lapis sat on the floor.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't." Steven smiled and laid down and placed his head down on the pillow. Amethyst was already out, stone-cold. Garnet was staying awake until everyone else fell asleep as she could just pass out in an instant, Pearl was attempting to again, but Pearl wasn't used to doing human things like that, Ivory was next to Lapis. Ivory already seemed to be dozing off, as if she could fall asleep at any moment.

"Sleeping is pleasant." Ivory added.

"Speak for yourself." Pearl groaned, remembering her nightmare.

"You're just mad because you had a nightmare about Rose being—" Amethyst sat up, turns out she was fake sleeping.

"Shush!" Pearl threw her pillow at Amethyst. Amethyst chuckled and grabbed the thrown pillow and struck Pearl back. Steven's eyes light up with stars.

"Pillow fight!" he picked up his pillow and smacked Amethyst in the face then ran circles around her.

"Ey…!" Amethyst shouted and picked up her pillow and trip Steven, creating a loud thud, then pounded him with the pillow.

"Amethyst! Steven stop that right now!" Pearl demanded. Garnet looked at her pillow, picked it up and smacked Pearl with it. "Garnet! What was—Ugh…! That's it!" Pearl picked up her pillow and hit Garnet back, then Amethyst, and then Steven.

"Lapis, come on!" Steven cheered Lapis on. Lapis looked at her pillow and smiled, she picked up her pillow.

"I'm coming for you Steven!" she stood up and jumped on the bed and launched her pillow at Steven.

"Ah!" Steven fell over, laughing as the pillow bounced off him and into Lapis' hands once again. "I'm going to get you!" Steven said.

"You have to worry about me first!" Amethyst chortled, Steven ran down the stairs. Garnet dropped down in front of him, Steven turned and ran in the other direction as Amethyst got nailed with Garnet's pillow attack. Pearl jumped behind Garnet and hit her side, which had no effect on Garnet whatsoever. Steven jumped out and hit Amethyst once more, then Lapis ran down the steps and hit them all at once, then took the opportunity to poke Steven's nose to taunt him in a playful way. Ivory held the remaining three pillows and used one of the three to hit Steven. Ivory ran up to Steven and whispered to Lapis, whom whispered to Amethyst, whom then whispered to Pearl. Everyone looked at Garnet and nailed her all at once. Garnet fell over.

"So… many pillows..." Garnet laid her head on the floor, pretending to be dead, but the small smile on her face revealed she was enjoying herself anyway. Lapis turned and hit Pearl, to which Pearl smiled as well, and hit Lapis back, but Amethyst gained up on Pearl too. Steven and Ivory fought each other until Steven fell back and turned to Lapis and Amethyst and smacked Amethyst down. Pearl laughed obnoxiously, just before Lapis hit her again. Ivory stood back, she wasn't going to fight these two, until one of them hit her. Pearl looked at Lapis, then they both looked at Ivory and hit her down.

"Agh…!" Ivory fell back, and held her face. "I've been pillow'd." Everyone chuckled at that, most of it was awkward because it was a horrible joke. Lapis looked at Pearl and smacked her again, making Lapis the winner.

"Winner, winner, chicken dinner!" Steven cheered, Lapis blushed and jumped up and down in excitement.

"Now can we go to sleep?" Pearl said, not really excited to sleep but more for things to cool down and have a little less excitement.

"Yes." Garnet said and rolled herself to the stairs then walked up the steps, two at a time. One by one, each gem made their way to the loft and laid down on the soft blankets.

* * *

Within the next twenty minutes or so, all the gems were asleep and each gem was cuddling with one another. Amethyst, covered in blanket so they could only see the outline of Amethyst's body but the snoring made it even clearer that it was her, laid on Garnet's back, whom was face down in her pillow and her feet stick out at the end of the blanket. Steven curled up with both his hands under his pillow in a praying position, snoring as well but not as loud as Amethyst, Pearl laid behind him, her arms wrapped around Steven protectively. Her hologram of being Rose still going, but this time not being a nightmare but instead of asking Rose to leave they were just staying together, and talking. Ivory didn't have a blanket around her, as she was always constantly warm she was looking for something cool in her sleep, so she held onto Lapis who was always cool, not cold. Lapis had a blanket over her, she was probably the most tired out of all of them. Pearl's hologram kept running as the others showed up: Amethyst, Sapphire, Ruby, Ivory, Lapis and Steven. Pearl looked between Rose and the others, knowing she had to choose whom to stay with, she looked at Rose and came to terms with it, smiled and seemed to mouth: "Thank you and goodbye."

* * *

Morning arrived, to which brought everyone's different reaction. Strangely enough, just about everyone woke up at once, except Garnet and Pearl. Pearl woke up much sooner, and Amethyst woke up much later. Garnet woke up a little after Pearl, found Amethyst in her lap and just pushed her off, flatly, and got back to work. Immediately aware of a new mission, got up and left. Pearl, however, just sat on the bed and watched everyone else sleep. The two were still awkward about what happened awhile ago, but they weren't fighting and could work together, so that was enough… for now. Steven noticed his partner missing and moved over to Lapis whom was cool and fell back asleep. Lapis was the next to wake up, and when she noticed the brown gloves that wrapped around her, and the small boy in her arms, she froze. She laid like that, waiting for Ivory to wake up and do something. Ivory woke up later, feeling the cool gem in her arms cuddled her closer. The three were all half-awake, half-asleep. Steven was probably in one of the happiest and most comfortable situations, if only Connie was here too. Ivory was a strange gem, as she had more human traits than most gems, so she was strangely comfortable. Lapis was almost the exact opposite, but found herself happier after a little bit. She wasn't being held back as a prisoner like that, she felt like there was someone who wanted her stay with.

"Tackle hug!" Amethyst shouted, then proceeded to glomp Steven.

"Hey!" Lapis and Ivory sat up instantly, to make sure Steven was okay, but Steven was laughing.

"Good morning Amethyst." he said.

"Morning nerd."Amethyst rubbed Steven's curly hair. "How do you feel about going for a swim today?" she asked.

"Excellent idea!" Pearl broke in. "Our mission isn't until later today and we'll have to wait for Garnet to come back, but why don't we have breakfast first?" Pearl smiled, as a smell began to fill the room. Pearl had been making breakfast, almost everyone was in a good mood this morning.

"You made breakfast?" Steven exclaimed getting up and grabbing a chair, scooting it over to the cabinets to get plates, and silverware instantly.

"We have guests, and Connie is coming over in a few minutes, so why not?" Pearl smiled, "Just don't expect me to eat any of it." the smile vanished, she meant it.

"Right!" Steven replied, Amethyst grabbed six waffles and entire bar of butter at once. "Hey..." Steven pouted.

"It's alright Steven, I expected that of her." Pearl had a lot of waffles ready and another three sticks of butter ready.

"What is that?" Lapis asked, picking up one of the hot waffles.

"It's breakfast." Steven said. "They're called waffles, they're awesome."

"They are really good, trust me." Ivory added.

"You know, they taste better with butter and syrup." Steven put two waffles on four plates, a slab of butter on each one and puddle of syrup in each cubicle of bread and handed them to Amethyst, Lapis, and Ivory, then keeping the fourth to himself. He then handed each of them a butter-knife and a fork. Amethyst didn't bother cutting it, and just dropped the two in her mouth, put the plate in the sink and walked off, licking syrup off her face. Pearl immediately went to the sink and washed the dish to make sure it got clean as soon as possible. Lapis held the knife cautiously and started cutting in an organized fashion, trying to give each cubicle it's own piece, but that would take awhile.

"Here." Ivory took Lapis' hands into her own and cut slices then cut those slices into thirds. "That'll get it done faster." Lapis took a bite hesitantly, it tasted good, so she took another bite, and another, and another…

"I think she likes it." Steven whispered to Ivory, Ivory chuckled and continued to eat breakfast.

"How did you know about this?" Pearl asked Ivory, as most gems don't know about human foods.

"When you took me to the top of the mountain." Ivory replied. "Some one was having breakfast-for-dinner."

"How did you see someone…?!" Pearl's eyes widened with shock.

"Aren't all gems supposed to see everything in focus despite any distance?" Ivory asked, Lapis and Pearl shook their heads.

"I've never been able to do that..." Lapis said, bringing her plate to Pearl but kept her distance from her. "What kind of gem are you?"

"Amorphous; Organic; Code of 25190, uh… I don't know what type of Ivory I am." she replied, she still didn't know if she was from a fossil or a tagua nut.

"It was rhetorical, but… okay." Lapis chuckled, becoming a bit more relaxed.

 **TWO HOURS LATER**

All the gems were ready for the beach, wearing the same outfits from the time Steven set up a beach party for the citizens who worked at Fish Stew Pizza to see how awesome the gems were. Amethyst tied up her hair into a high ponytail, and wears a purple tank top, with black straps from her swimsuit underneath hanging out over both shoulders. She wears jean-shorts, instead of leggings. She also wears a green fanny-pack, and goes barefoot. Garnet wears a two-piece with a dark red top, with a pink outline and a slanted black skirt with a red stripe that stops slightly above her knees. Pearl wore a flowing, sky-blue sundress extending to her knees with a white shawl around her shoulder area. Steven wears a tank top that resembles his usual shirt, but with a bright yellow outline along the edges. He wears jean shorts in place of his usual pants. Lapis chose to wear a navy wrap with some type of baby-blue flowers on it, and one piece electric blue swimsuit underneath, and as usual—remaining barefoot. Ivory stood, dressed as she'd usually would but she began to sweat, wearing a turtleneck to the beach wasn't exactly the best way to stay cool.

"Hey, why don't you dress a little more casual?" Steven suggested.

"What's wrong with what I have on?" Ivory asked, Steven shrugged.

"You're always warm, I don't think this is the best weather for something like this..." Steven chuckled nervously, "Up to you." he smiled and started to put up the volleyball net.

"Hang on Steven..." Garnet stopped Steven, "I don't think this is the best idea, remember last time?" Garnet referred to the volleyball game getting too intense.

"Last time… Hey, did you mention Watermelon Tourmaline awhile ago Ivory?" Pearl broke in.

"Y-Yea..." Ivory replied.

"His gem is in the Temple!" Pearl exclaimed with the memory of fighting the giant spiky puffer-fish thing.

"What?!" Lapis added on, apparently she knew Watermelon Tourmaline. "I thought he got off this planet! No one has seen him in forever…!" Lapis gasped, "He became corrupted?"

"Yea..." Steven answered for everyone, "Th-There's nothing we can do about it right now though! So let's save the after noon for swimming." Everyone looked at each other, back and forth, not sure if to drop it or not. Lapis and Pearl didn't look like they wanted to drop it, but Garnet looked at Pearl and Ivory at Lapis. The two eventually came to some kind of mental agreement and stepped back. Steven hooted with some kind of idea in mind, and drew a line symmetrical to the shore with a stick and stood behind.

"Can everyone swim?" Pearl asked.

"It doesn't matter for anyone except Steven." Garnet replied.

"Okay, everyone get behind the line." Steven got behind the line, and one by one, each gem did as well. "First one to the buoy wins." Ivory changed her clothes, now aware she needed to swim. A dark chestnut tank top, a white swim top underneath and brown shorts. "Ready… get set…. GO!" Steven ran while the gems jumped off the white sand and into the water. "Heeey." Steven pouted for a minute but just swam as quick as he could. Lapis was going the quickest, Ivory behind, then Garnet, then Amethyst, then Pearl, and Steven in last. A wave came by and pushed them all back, except Lapis, Ivory and Pearl, whom used the wave to her advantage. Lapis by adding extra force to push the wave harder behind her, Ivory whom could resist water, as an added bonus to who she was, and just kept going, and Pearl who went under the wave gaining a higher spot as she move past Amethyst and Garnet. Lapis took a breath and began choking on the water, and began to slow. Ivory and Pearl passed Lapis, Ivory began to slow as well, worrying about Lapis and stopped. Lapis cleared her throat and started swimming again as if nothing was wrong in the first place, Ivory trailed behind Lapis to make sure she'd make it to the buoy without choking again. Lapis noticed and used her hydrokinesis, to help Ivory gain her second place and attempted to throw her into the buoy, but couldn't because of her water resistance, Pearl made it there first.

"Ha, ha! I did it! I win!" Pearl gave a victory laugh and stood on the side of buoy. Everyone stopped in their tracks, panting, then laughing when Pearl lost her footing and fell back into the water. Ivory looked back at Lapis to make sure she was still okay, she smiled to tell Ivory, that she was fine.

* * *

/So this took me a little longer than usual, but I had to draw out some new characters that you'll read about soon. Thanks for reading this chapter!


	6. Homeworld Gems

**Chapter 5: Homeworld Gems**

"Ugh… she should've checked in by now!" a familiar gem whined, this gem sat in a silver colored chair with a screen in front of her. The room was in a circular display, there must've been at least a hundred gems like her sitting in front of screen, trying to manage an informant or escort on a certain planet. These were known as directors, and the one speaking was known as Benitoite, the gem was short and curvy, and her skin was a dark blue with complete black eyes, no pupil or sclera seen, with frost blue hair slicked back out of her eyes, wearing a basic blue jumpsuit and a baguette shaped gem on her right wrist, fourth of a way down her forearm. Everyone around her sitting at a console was almost the exact same way, except few had the baguette shape like she did and a different color palette.

"Is there a problem?!" At the center of the room, there was a woman, tallest in the room and she was responsible for everything that happened to each planet. The Diamonds were the only ones capable of this, and were hidden to almost everyone because they were superior to even their own kind.

"N-No, ma'am!" Benitoite replied.

"Don't shout!" the diamond said harshly.

"Y-Yes, m-ma'am." a heavy sigh escaped the gem's lips, a frown plastered on her face. "I give her one chance and she could ruin everything for me…!" the gem half-screamed, half-whispered. She thought about what she could do, she wasn't on the planet and she couldn't go without risking her job. "That's it, I just have to send out another informant out there."

"You're sending another gem?" the gem next to Benitoite whispered. "Beni, if you send too many gems to the planet, the Diamonds are going to notice. I-If they do, they'll replace you like they did with 75235..."

"She was too young for this job anyway." Benitoite replied, managing the screen to see the gems that were available for missions. Most gems working in here were 55-75~ numbers. The ones available for missions were more 80-95~ or 25-45~, which meant veterans or newbies. In Benitoite's opinion, veterans were only good for escort missions. "Perhaps I should send 35310, or 80361..." she muttered to herself, pressing for the two to arrive. "Ohh, what about 55329?" she smirked.

"5532… That gem is rather unreliable to following the non-violence policy to informants/prisoners/etc." the gem next to Benitoite reminded her.

"Exactly, she'll teach my little informant a lesson." Benitoite said, and pressed another button for three gems to arrive.

* * *

Within the next few minutes, all three arrived and Benitoite had to leave her console to prep the three. The first to arrive was 80361, Taaffeite, a very tall and muscular gem with a rectangular body shape and a pale mauve skin and plum medium-length colored hair, covering the gem's eyes with a stoic facial expression. Her posture seemed to be completely straight, and feet together, she was clearly a veteran. Her gem was located below her heart but above her naval, her gem was an orchid color with a vitreous luster in a cushion cut. She wore plum pants with many pockets on the side, the contents inside were unknown, a lavender pair of boots that were clearly worn-down and a long scarf, and a jacket with a mauve torso and orchid sleeves that wrapped around her hands as a pair of gloves as well. The next to arrive was 55326, Diopside. A previous director, with a baguette cut like Benitoite but over where her eyes would be, the gem was an olive color that camoflauged with her skin, and had a vitreous luster like Taaffeite. Diopside was a slender gem, with short hair that curled in front of her, she had large hands and feet, she wore dark forest gloves that seemed to be enforced with something to give a little extra force and the same shade of forest green was on her leggings and tube top underneath her top, her top was an olive-to-lime colored blouse, she wore a black choker and wedges. Strange choice of clothing for a warrior, but she was good at her job, and that was all that mattered. The last to show up, was not only late, but was a newbie. 35310, Phosphophyllite.

"I'm sorry for being late." Phosphophyllite apologized and bowed upon entry. She was the shortest of the three, not counting Benitoite, but she was probably the most kind of all the gems in human aspect. Phosphophyllite had a small belly that made pleasant sound when she hit it, she called it "pudge"; curiously enough to other gems, giving her a triangular body type. Her skin was a light aqua color, with deep green-blue eyes and shining long pale green hair, tied up into a ponytail, her bangs separated evenly though contained more of a curve toward the left. Phosphophyllite wore a teal colored mid sleeve shirt with no back and multicolor wristbands, the left being white or light green, the right being aqua to dark blue and white shorts and ballet flats. Her appearance seemed to be that of a young child or teen. Her gem was placed on her spine, right behind her ribcage toward the center, in a step cut.

"Should be." Beritoite replied, "Doesn't matter, time is of the essence." Benitoite handed each gem a replicator, Gilson Imitation replicator, specifically meant to replicate other gems. "This is retrieve mission, afterwards, you'll be responsible for reactivating the kindergarten. Your coordinates will take you straight to the area of where former informants have been. Each of you will have a set of instructions, and it will lead each you with a specific mission. Each of your communicators will be placed on your wrist, underneath your sleeves, gloves, or whatever covers your wrist. You will arrive on Earth in four hours, and when you do… You are responsible for yourselves." Each was sent to a small ship, a very small ship to make sure their mission was one of stealth.

Taaffeite turned on her portable console, and was given her instructions. Reactivate the kindergarten, stay hidden but if necessary—resort to violence to ensure her mission. Diopside did the same, he instructions were to locate 25190, and any other Homeworld gems, deliver a punishment and return home when 25133 and 75271 come to destroy the enemy gems. Phosphophyllite was to replace 25190 and report everything she found out about the enemy gems.

"So you're Phosphophyllite?" Taaffeite started, that being the first thing she said, and being the first person to speak on-board. "I thought you'd be stronger, or at least, taller." she added, her voice was low and quiet, seemingly to be one who is very calm. "Maybe being smaller is good for being hidden." Taaffeite sighed, knowing she was not one for a stealth mission of all things.

"You can call my Phospho." Phosphophyllite replied, smiling. Phophophyllite didn't understand why she was picked for this, of all other people. She wasn't a fighter, she was one who loved life, not battle, but she didn't know what Homeworld did with kindergarten on Earth. She would soon find out.

"Taffi." Taaffeite knew that some of their names were just too hard to say. Diopside said nothing and just looked forward, watching the ship take its course. Little did they know there was two other gems on the ship, two stowaways. The past director, 75235, was on board with someone who was always up to mischief, this time was no different.

* * *

/So this chapter was a little shorter, so I wanted to get it out sooner. The next chapter is going to be shorter but I'm planning on a larger chapter after that.

It's a little late for me to say this, but I wanted to thank **FanficLovingPerson** for supporting this story from the beginning, and **Cyan Quartz** who has been a really good friend who has supported everything I've done. So thank you both for everything.

Thanks for reading everyone!


	7. Confrontation: Part 1

**Chapter 6: Confrontation #1**

"25190, checking in." Ivory spoke quietly, Benitoite didn't respond. "25190, checking in." she repeated.

"Oh, you." Benitoite replied, "About time you checked in. I've already sent some more people to check in on you."

"What?!" Ivory exclaimed, her eyes widening. The beach house went quiet.

"Ivory who are you talking to?" Pearl asked, Ivory held up her index finger, telling Pearl to be quiet.

"Yeah, sent a few others to come get you and take care of your mission." Benitoite said, not caring about anything Ivory said now.

"I can handle this on my own." Ivory said.

"You can't even report every 12 hours, nevertheless do any analyzing for the enemy gems." Benitoite replied. "Or reactivate the kindergarten, or earn the trust of any gem there. 55329 is going to pick you up and the Diamonds will decide your punishment when you come home." Ivory clenched her fist.

"That's where you're wrong." Ivory was going to make a rash decision, but it will most likely be for the better. "That isn't home, that's nothing close as to what home should be! And I'm not going back to it. 65334 is bubbled and so is 70261. Your escorts have failed, the warriors sent here have failed, this time will be no different. Because the Crystal Gems are going to take your team down! Enjoy this day Beni, because you're going to be replaced when the Diamonds hear about all four of your informants failing to do a mission!" Ivory hesitantly tore of her armguard which held the communicator in it, and then proceeded to destroy it. Steven looked at her arm, her arms had burns, no scars, and they were faded.

"Wow… Ivory that was... rash..." Pearl started, before they were about to all go off on Ivory for playing both Homeworld and them, but now she made it very clear that she was not planning on going back anytime soon.

"Awesome!" Steven shouted and ran to Ivory, "So does that mean you're staying?! That you're going to stay forever and ever?!" Steven laughed and fell on his back. "W-We're going to have pizza together with everyone! And you'll meet Lars and Sadie and Kofi and Jenny and all the Maheswarans and Jamie and Onion and Sour Cream and…!" Steven was stopped by Garnet.

"Hold on a minute Steven. What did she say about the other gems that are coming?" Garnet was focused on the danger was coming. Pearl and everyone was beginning to panic.

"55329 is Diopside, she's a gem that can manipulate her body without losing any strength or speed. She can easily predict movements by calculating the repetition of of each movement and fighting style." Ivory explained, "She didn't say anything about anyone else coming, other than that there were going to be others..."

"She's completely brutal!" Pearl added, "I've seen her in battle, she directed infinite warriors to battle and gave no care as to how many casualties there were! No one lived when she was command!It's why she lost her job as a director and a general!" Pearl added.

"She's still brutal, even now." Lapis sighed, "I saw her, speaking with another gem. A-Apparently she has a long history of violence." Lapis crossed her arms. Garnet was silent.

"Good." Garnet said.

"What?" Pearl exclaimed.

"There was another future that is much worse than this one." Garnet smiled and started heading for her room.

"What future?!" Steven asked. "What did you see?!" Steven was nervous about a new very powerful gem, but was more focused on Garnet's future vision now.

"There was a future where someone much worse came. Besides, someone might be open to being your friend Steven." Garnet rubbed Steven's curly hair and went to her room without a word.

"What just happened?" Amethyst laid down, completely lost in everything that just went down.

"Ivory staying on Earth, and there's bad guys coming and maybe a new friend." Steven summed it up.

"Oh, okay..." Amethyst yawned, rolled over, and passed out—yet again. Amethyst didn't seem to mind Ivory or Lapis as much anymore. "Wait, what guys are coming?!" Amethyst jerked herself awake.

* * *

/Much shorter. Now it's time to get to work. Farewell, and thanks for reading!


	8. Confrontation: Part 2

**Chapter 7: Confrontation #2**

Steven pointed into the sky, it was getting dark out, and the view of the soon to crash ship, was growing bigger and bigger and was headed right for the Beach City. The ship was spherical, and had small blasters around it, right below the wings and an invisible force field for protection. It was clearly not an escape pod, but was only meant to be for a one way trip. It wasn't as large as the hand that Jasper, Peridot and Lapis arrived in, but it wasn't too small either.

"Garnet! Pearl! Amethyst! Lapis! Ivory!" Steven shouted. "They're here! They're here!"

"Gems, together!" Garnet ordered as the five ran out to see the ship. "Do everything you can to stop them from landing." Steven got out the Laser Light Cannons, the three of them and aimed them at the ship.

"If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs." Steven said, the cannons fired but to no avail. "Aww man..." Steven groaned, he was really hoping the cannons would work after their failure from the last Homeworld ship trying to land.

"It's okay Steven. I'll try." Lapis placed a comforting hand on Steven's shoulder, it seems the two got closer over the last day. She rose her hand up, creating a giant wave, making half of beach city panic with the thought of a tsunami. She pushed the wave back and hit the ship but it had no effect. Lapis looked at the ship with worry. Garnet picked up Amethyst, jumped and threw her at the ship but to no luck either. After ten minutes, Amethyst came to shore.

"No use..." Amethyst groaned lying on the shore, panting.

"Lapis, Steven, Ivory. You should go inside." Garnet started.

"No way." Steven replied.

"I got you guys into this mess, I should at least help you get out of it." Ivory added, Lapis didn't say anything; She wasn't sure if she wanted to fight. Garnet noticed her hesitance.

"Lapis, you can leave if you want." Garnet reassured her, Lapis nodded slowly and sprouted her wings, and took off. She didn't look at Steven, maybe she was too embarrassed to.

"Bye… Lapis." Steven muttered sadly then turned to the ship landing, it was strange. The ship broke as soon as it hit land. _Was it meant to do that?_ Steven thought. The door opened to reveal three gems, three silhouettes stood. A tall muscular gem with puffy hair, lots of curls… She almost looked like Rose. Steven had to shake that thought, and so did Pearl. Reminding themselves that Rose was gone, and she had long hair and wore a dress, but the gem was almost in the same exact spot. The other was a skinny gem that seemed to be another informant, the baguette gem over the physical form's eyes. Those two made sense as to why they were sent, but why this last one? This gem was a little taller than Connie, the step cut by her heart but as the color came to them, the gem faded as the gem must've been on her back.

"Do you see the informant?" Taaffeite asked Diopside.

"Yes." Diopside and started walking down, toward the gems.

"Who's he?" Phosphophyllite asked, being the second to walk down, and Taaffeite the last to move. Phospho was talking about Steven, who just appeared to be human.

"I'm Steven. Who are you?" Steven said politely, keeping the fact that there might be a friend among them.

"Phosphophyllite. Everyone calls me Phospho, though." she smiled, she seemed excited. This was obviously her first mission.

"Ha, ha, that rhymed!" Steven giggled.

"Stop speaking with the enemy." Diopside scolded.

"Yes, ma'am." Phospho sighed, "I thought we weren't supposed to reveal ourselves anyway, what happened to stealth?"

"I'm saving their escort the trip." Diopside said.

"You went against Benitoite's orders? She's a director." Taaffeite reminded Diopside.

"She doesn't know what she's doing anyway." Diopside analyzed them all. "Steven's a human, you don't need to worry about him. A fusion, assuming that's the one that took down Jasper… A defective parasite..."

"Who are you calling a parasite?!" Amethyst screamed. Diopside giggled.

"Oh, that's cute." Diopside looked at Amethyst, "You thought I was talking about you?" Diopside pointed at Pearl, "Don't you know who the real parasite is?" Pearl clenched her teeth.

"That's enough." Pearl knew how gems like her were made on Earth, a majority of them anyway. Diopside seemed to be calculating everything, each one's strength, speed, temper, patience, what made each one of them tick.

"What did you call her?" Ivory asked, tied her hair back, then scratched the back of her neck. Diopside looked at Ivory.

"Oh, you were the replaced informant." Diopside replied, not caring about her. She knew Ivory's inability to bubble, fuse, and summon a weapon. However some of that information was out-dated, obsolete. Ivory giggled and repeated herself.

"What. Did. You. Call. Her?" Ivory said, pauses with each word.

"A parasite, technically everything here is a parasite, she's nothing special. This planet belongs to Homeworld, to the diamonds." Diopside continued.

"Don't call my friends that!" Steven ran up to Diopside and railed on her, however his fists didn't do any damage on her.

"Steven!" the gems shouted, in concern. She simply just slapped him with her entire arm, making him fly back into Garnet's arms. Ivory came out of no where and kneed Diopside with rage.

"Don't call her that!" Ivory shouted, then tripped Diopside and punched her while was she was down. "Don't hurt my friends!" she picked up Diopside and threw her into the water. Ivory's gem started to glow, but faded quickly. Phospho grabbed Ivory and flipped her over with a struggle but had no problem running around the entire group of gems finding the locations for all their gems and then moving right back to the side of Taaffeite.

"The fusion has hers on her palms, the short purple one has hers on her heart, and the tall one has hers one her forehead, but that's clear." Phospho repeated to Taaffeite, then ran to Diopside to make sure she got up without being hit again. Steven got up slowly.

"Well, she's not going to be my friend." Steven chuckled and got to his feet. He had a bruise on his face, a big one.

"Steven, stand back." Pearl instructed as Garnet stepped in front of him. Diopside found her feet and made a running start, then was suddenly in her face and punched Garnet straight up. Garnet groaned and charged Diopside back to get her away from Steven. Phospho ran up to Amethyst.

"Figure you should take on someone your own size." Phospho teased, and summoned her baseball bat. It wasn't that big so she could actually swing it, it was a metal of some kind and had a teal handle and the rest was the deep blue-green color, but appeared to have shards sticking out of it. Amethyst came at Phospho with an intent to kill with her whip. She struck out her whip and wrapped it around Phospho's bat, thinking she had the upper hand, but Phospho swung the bat and made Amethyst fall on her face. Phospho smirked and went to hit Amethyst's head while she still had her head in the sand, Amethyst turned over and kicked the bat up, hitting Phospho back in the face. Leaving the gem with a whimper, and then a whining noise.

"Oh, are you going to cry about it?" Amethyst gave a pouting face to be sarcastic, Phospho got up with grunt and swung, Amethyst slid under Phospho's arms and hit her in the back, but she proceeded to elbow Amethyst in the face. Taaffeite managed to make her way to Pearl, Taaffeite stood much taller than Pearl; as the two gems unseen by anyone took off while the others fought. Pearl touched the top of her head and summoned her spear, preparing to fight, Taaffeite simply bumped her chest with her hand the war hammer started to come out, it was huge. The top and bottom of it being mauve and the handle being orchid with some type of inscription on it. She swung it down, onto Pearl, who moved out of the way, just in time. The hammer was large, and definitely had to take some time to swing it down.

"You're making a mistake." Pearl said as she jumped behind Taaffeite, who spun and almost hit Pearl with the hammer. Pearl used her spear to block but it broke upon impact.

"I am?" Taaffeite chuckled, thinking this was going to be an easy fight.

"I thought you were going to be at least a bit of a challenge." Diopside spoke to Garnet, who had her hands above her head, gauntlets already on. Diopside had summoned her scythe, it had a black snath and a dark green heel, appearing to have a vitreous luster like her gem, and the blade being a lime color.

"You haven't seen anything yet..." Garnet said, holding the scythe and stealing it from Diopside, but Diopside let go and punched Garnet in the stomach, it was a sucker punch. Garnet went to punch back and hit Diopside down. Diopside grabbed the Gilson Imitation Replicator, which looked like a gem destabilizer, and stabbed Garnet's foot. Garnet stepped back. "What… was that?" Garnet was more confused than anything else. Diopside found her feet.

"A suitable replacement." Diopside grinned and clicked a button on the side and in a moment, a clone of Garnet appeared. They looked exactly the same. Garnet knew she couldn't fight herself, from when she faced her water match, plus any of Steven's shows that had this type of thing, they lost to their clone, they had to switch but no one else could take Garnet on. The Garnet clone punched Garnet while looking for a solution. Ivory climbed to her feet, and looked at the Garnets' fight. She looked between which Garnet was which, Diopside was standing and just watching the two Garnets fight. Ivory analyzed the gems on their palms, they both had a vitreous luster. The hands… Sapphire was on the right hand, Ruby on the left hand. The fake was the one with her back to Ivory! The fake Garnet put her hands above her head, ready to strike the real Garnet's head. Garnet was covered in bruises and cuts, and she was bleeding… Ivory lost her patience again. Her gem glowed, Ivory reached behind her head into her gem and summoned a pair of sai, then impaled the fake Garnet's spine. That Garnet stepped back and looked at Ivory, Ivory lifted her foot up to Garnet's waist and knocked her over, and turned into a series of clouds. No gems, she made the right choice.

"How'd you know?" Garnet asked.

"The gems on your hands, the mixed cut one is supposed to be on the right. Sapphire's on the right. The clone had Ruby's gem on the right." Ivory replied. Garnet's eyes widened, Ivory was an observant one.

"When did you get a good look at my hands?" Garnet asked again, but she wasn't focused on that anymore.

"When you caught me." Ivory answered once again, turned and looked at Diopside. There was a scream, Pearl laid on the ground. She had broken her leg, Taaffeite had stepped on it with force, but she was refusing to retreat into her gem. "Excuse me." Ivory said, and ran to Taaffeite and struck, not with a thrust but with a hundred cuts. Taaffeite groaned in pain, she couldn't soothe the cuts in any way, they were all on her back. Very few of them were bleeding, but it was painful. Ivory picked up Pearl carefully.

"Ivory, don't. I can handle this…!" Pearl started.

"Don't kid yourself, you need to retreat into your gem. The sooner you do, the sooner you get out." Ivory lost all her nervousness and shyness and anxiety. "Retreat your gem." Ivory repeated.

"Behind you!" Pearl shouted, Ivory jumped up as high as she could and found that Taaffeite had swung her hammer at Ivory while Ivory's back was turned.

"Pearl, please." Ivory begged, Pearl nodded and went into her gem to regenerate. "Thank you." She kissed the gem lightly and pocketed Pearl. Ivory landed on her feet, and prepared her sai.

"You'll pay for those scratches." Taaffeite said.

"You broke my lady's leg. You're going to get a lot more than those scratches." Ivory said, tears on the brim of her eyes, knowing that Pearl's pain was her fault. The war hammer flew into Ivory's face, and Ivory held up her sai and blocked the mighty strength behind the swing. Ivory shifted back into the sand. Phospho was giving Amethyst trouble, circling around Amethyst with mighty speed, hitting her with the baseball bat whenever she decided Amethyst was due for one. Steven ran in front of Amethyst with his shield, making Phospho fly off of it, her inertia catching up and forcing her to fly off in the first place.

"Amethyst!" Steven helped her up. Amethyst was covered in bruises, she had a black eyes and she was bleeding from her head.

"Aw, crap!" Amethyst chuckled playfully. "I'm getting beat by another midget with short legs." she giggled, and then wheezed.

"Take a breath. I'm going to make sure this meanie won't hurt you again." Steven said, Amethyst got to her feet weakly.

"No, Steven! It's too dangerous!" Amethyst stated, Steven shook his head and looked at Phospho.

"You're a gem?" Phospho looked at Steven's shield, Phospho prepared her bat and swung it against the shield thinking it would shatter, but all it did was ricochet and hit her in the face, knocking her out for just a minute, but that was all it took for Amethyst to wrap her whip around Phospho and keep her trapped that way.

"Steven, sit on her." Amethyst instructed, so Steven did. Amethyst ran over to Ivory, noticing Pearl's absence. "Where's Pearl?" she asked harshly.

"Broke her leg, told her to retreat into her gem." Ivory said bluntly.

"I knew you were trouble, eh, guess there's nothing to whine at me anymore." Amethyst said.

"Oh, great. Now there's two of you?" Taaffeite groaned, "Guess I'll just have to do this." she stuck herself with the Gilson Imitation Replicator, then pressed the button and a clone of her appeared.

"Good, now I get to kick your butt twice." Ivory said, slipping behind one and picking them up by their armpits and throwing them into the other. Ivory got on top of the one lying on the other and punched her in the face six times, paused and did it again. Then turned to the sai in her hands and cut the gem right along the collar bone. Then struck through the gem, turning Taaffeite back into her gem. "Amethyst, bubble her." Ivory tossed the gem to Amethyst, and Amethyst proceeded to bubble it instantly and send it into the temple. The clone of Taaffeite remained.

"Should I just… go help Garnet?" Amethyst asked.

"Yeah, that might be best." Ivory said, looking at the clone with a glare. If looks could kill…

"Lapis!" Steven shouted, as the flying gem returned to the Crystal Gems, with two or three people in chains. "I'm glad you came back!" Lapis smiled as she closed in on Steven.

"These guys with you?" Lapis landed showing two gems in her hydro-kinetic chains. "They're definitely gems and they were talking about the Diamonds." Lapis started. Garnet was getting angry while fighting Diopside.

"You think you can just come to my planet and bark orders and numbers at me?" Garnet shouted, grabbing Diopside's head and throwing her into the wall. "They knew what they were getting into, and their loss wasn't… my… fault!" Garnet punched Diopside through solid rock. Diopside popped out of the mountain, delivering an uppercut to Garnet, then running inside the beach house.

"She's going for the temple!" Garnet shouted at anyone who could stop her.

"Tie them up Amethyst!" Lapis said, making the water chains, on the two stowaways from before, vanish and Amethyst's whip replaced their chains with new ones. Lapis flew into the beach house, as Diopside did. There was a bright flash of light, Lapis came out a couple minutes later. Lapis returned, unharmed, and empty-handed.

"What happened?" Amethyst asked, Lapis looked down and shook her head.

"Lapis?" Steven said in a confused manner.

"She got away." Lapis reported, regretfully. They all sighed.

"It's okay, we'll get her someday. She's not going anywhere, anytime soon." Garnet placed a consoling hand on Lapis' shoulder.

"Hey… wait where's Pearl?" Lapis asked. Ivory pulled out the gem in her pocket and showed Pearl.

"Oh no..." Garnet and Lapis muttered at the same time.

"Agh…! This can't be happening!" Steven shouted, taking Pearl from Ivory's hands.

"H-Hey…!" Ivory was becoming rather protective of everyone now, especially Pearl.

"Hey, guys. What about these two?" Amethyst asked, gesturing to the two tied up in her whip.

"You're crushing me!" one shouted at the other.

"Well then move." the other replied.

"You are laying on me!"

"I can't do anything about it!"

"Oh, bugger off!" the two grumbled. "This is all your fault anyway..."

"Excuse me?!"

"You're too big! You're always easily spotted!"

"Are you serious? I'm almost completely invisible!" the two fought the one speaking was definitely larger than the other, but had no color, not even black or white, just a colorless gem. It was strange to see, but had a strange shimmer that gave the gem an appearance and body type. A short but wide gem, with hundreds upon hundreds of braids, big eyes, and plump lips. She wore a cape of some kind with a brooch by her left shoulder, with a massive hood, not up yet, and a long skirt, or dress and no shoes. No one could locate her gem. "Besides you're the ones with a thousand colors on you! You're the one who is easily spotted." the transparent on wiggled to slam down on the smaller one.

"Hey!" the other gem was smaller, shorter and thinner, a tiny gem—about Sapphire or Ruby's size—with electric blue hair, mid-length with a small braided bun on the side of her head, and one lone braid on the other side. Iridescent eyes with no one solid color but many, which were just beautiful to look at. Her skin was different shades of black and dark gray and wore a long sleeve shirt and a short skirt that looked like it was just sprayed with thousands of colors, and wore golden shoes, appearing to be flats that gave her some height. "I'm going to kill you when we get out of this!" Her gem was a pendant, cut into a misshaped octagon which wasn't cut like anything anyone had ever seen before. She must've been special.

"Who says you're getting out of this?" Amethyst broke in suddenly. "You have a lot of explaining to do." Amethyst turned to Phosphophyllite, "And so do you."

* * *

The three gems were tied up in the beach house for questioning while the fourth, Taaffeite, was bubbled for now. Ivory had lost her sai, and Pearl was still in her gem, Amethyst still had them tied up, one of them had to interrogate them, in the smart way, without violence. And that was not Garnet, nor Amethyst, nor Steven, and Lapis was not willing.

"Who are you?" Ivory asked.

"Why should I tell you?" the transparent one asked.

"I'll make you." Ivory replied.

"Like to see you try." she giggled. Ivory repeated the same question to the other two, Phosphophyllite didn't answer, but the smallest one with iridescent eyes did.

"My name is Ammolite." she cringed, Ivory stepped back and tried to make sure she heard that right.

"Ammolite?" she repeated.

"Yea." the gem rolled her eyes, Ivory tapped the counter twice, as if to say she's "tapping out." Ammolite was another organic gem, a very old one at that. "None of you know what you're doing, do you?"

"But I called some who does!" Steven opened the door to reveal Connie.

"I know just what to do." Connie smiled evilly, "Never done it before, but I've read all about it." Connie chuckled and went up to Phosphophyllite. "How far have you gotten with them?"

"Won't even say who they are." Ivory replied.

"So… no where?" Connie smiled. Ivory blushed awkwardly. "Let me handle this." Connie cracked her knuckles and got in Phospho's face. "Name?" Connie asked.

"I'm going to tell you the same thing as doll face over there..." Phospho started. Connie pulled out lemon juice that was in a flask.

"Do you know what this is?" Connie asked, Phospho looked at the liquid.

"No."

"It's hydrochloric acid, one of the strongest ones in Beach City. One drop will completely destroy everything everything within a 12 inch radius." Connie bluffed. "I have an antidote, too." Connie held up a turkey baster with water in it.

"I don't believer that for a..." Phospho started again, she flicked some in Phospho's eyes, which caused a burning sensation.

"Your name?"

"Phosphophyllite! What the…!" Phospho couldn't even rub her eyes. "I-I'll tell you anything, just make it stop!" Connie put two drops of water in Phospho's eyes. Soothing Phospho's eyes a little.

"It'll take a minute to stop." Connie replied. "What was your mission here?"

"Watch t-the enemy gems, to p-prepare an escort." Phospho admitted. "W-We all had different missions..."

"Are these two with you?" Connie asked.

"N-No…! I've never seen t-them before now." Phospho continued, keeping her eyes shut.

"Who's the escort?"

"E-Emerald and Jet. I-I think… I wasn't told that much." Phospho panicked. "Please, leave me alone!"

"Alright, I'll come back to you… later." Connie sighed and looked at the transparent one. "Bet you preferred Ivory over me." the gem didn't say anything. "Do you want the same treatment?"

"N-No, I'll t-talk! I'll talk!" she panicked too, "My name is Hambergite, code 75235, previous director for this planet. I wanted to screw with my replacement so I sneaked onto their ship, okay?" the transparent gem said.

"You have a code… And your a director of this planet…" Connie muttered, "How many more directors are there? What other gems are on this planet? Are affiliated with… the one next to you?" Connie gestured to Ammolite, Connie wasn't told that was Ammolite's name.

"I am." Hambergite admitted, "I convinced her to come with me, keep her out of it." she continued.

"I need to question her." Connie reminded Hambergite.

"No! Keep her out of it!" Hambergite struggled against her ties, beginning to tear them. "Stay away from her! Don't touch her!" she repeated.

"Woah, woah! Calm down." Connie said, "I can have my partner do it, he won't hurt anyone. Trust me." Hambergite took a deep breath.

"Keep away from her." Hambergite repeated, a bit more calmly. Connie stepped back and looked at Steven with only one word: "Yikes."

"Wait!" Ammolite spoke up, "I'm willing to speak to Ivory, in private." Ivory wasn't listening, she was thinking about Pearl's broken leg, and how painful it must've been… It was Taaffeite's fault, not hers, right? Ivory shook her head. Taaffeite might've been the cause but Ivory knew it was her fault.

"Ivory?" Connie touched her side to get her attention. "You're up again." Ivory didn't think she could do it, to see an organic gem tied up, trapped… Ivory wouldn't have it. Everyone exited the beach house, Garnet having to carry Phosphophyllite and Hambergite out of the beach house for a little bit.

"Why'd you run during the fight?" Ivory asked after a moment, "Did Hambergite convince you, or was it your plan in the first place?"

"I… uh..." Ammolite tried to find her words before she spoke them. "It didn't seem like we could stay there, and I wanted to help sabotage their mission. I hated… the Diamonds for replacing Hambergite just like that. The best way to do that, is wreck the kindergarten, I tried to make my way to that." Ammolite replied. "We couldn't have any one know we were here, but the blue one saw us."

"Her name is Lapis." Ivory said. "If I, uh… untied you. Would you not hurt anyone?" Ivory asked, she was being persuaded.

"Promise." Ammolite said nervously, "Not very many of us remain, I'd like to keep most of them intact." she added, Ivory hesitantly unbound Ammolite from her ties. "Have you learned how to fuse yet? Organics always take the longest." she asked.

"I'd rather not say." Ivory replied, looking at the gems wrists, there were golden bands around her wrists, flush upon them, but as she turned her wrists they seemed to change color. "Weird wristbands."

"They're weak points, in a sense of speaking. I can't retreat into my gem to regenerate unless all three parts have been hit. Once they are, the real position of my gem appears." Ammolite revealed something very personal to Ivory, she must've shown that she trusted Ivory in some way. "Can I go?" Ammolite asked.

"No." Ivory said, "I can't allow you to leave."

"Why?" Ammolite stepped back, moving toward the temple.

"Because I can't tell you that. I'm not the one in charge."

"Who is?"

"Garnet. You'll have to speak to her, but we have to stay here." Ivory repeated. "Look it's scary, but that's actually how I ended up here, same as Lapis, and it's not that bad..." Ivory reassured Ammolite that it was safe here, as long as you didn't try to run or threatened to hurt anyone.

"Ivory!" Amethyst rushed to open the door. "Photosoft, whatever her name is, is getting away!" Amethyst glared at Ivory and Ammolite. "Why'd you untie her?" Amethyst crossed her arms.

"Ammolite, Amethyst. No fighting. I'll be right back." Ivory said, exiting the beach house, running as fast as she can to see what's going on. Garnet and Lapis are chasing after Phosphophyllite, while Steven and Connie sit on Hambergite. Ivory jumps off the landing with enough force to catch up with Garnet, Phosphophyllite is fast, really fast that even Lapis is having trouble keeping up.

"She's getting away!" Garnet grumbled.

"Garnet, give me a boost. Lapis, catch me, then throw me!" Ivory asked, knowing she was lightest one, the two nodded. Ivory ran in front of Garnet, who proceeded to pick her up and throw her ahead. Lapis caught her and panted quietly.

"One, two… three…!" Lapis said, then swung her far ahead of Phosphophyllite, but enough to where she didn't see Ivory coming and the two collided.

"Ha! Caught ya!" Ivory wrestled the little gem, who was repetitively kicking Ivory in the stomach and punching her in the face. "Ow… ow, ow… ow." Ivory continued wrestling with the gem until Garnet caught up and knocked Phosphophyllite, yet again, then hit her again, hard enough to make Phosphophyllite retreat into her gem.

"I'm not going to try and keep this one down. It's better this way." Garnet picked up the small gem, and bubbled her. When Garnet, Lapis and Ivory returned to the beach house, Amethyst, Steven, Connie and Ammolite were all sitting on Hambergite.

"Hey, what're you doing?! Get off of me you little!" Hambergite was going off, Ammolite bounced on Hambergite.

"This is what you get for crushing me earlier!" Ammolite shouted, and giggled afterward. Ivory was concerned of Hambergite knocking everyone off and going into a raging fit, but Ivory could just barely see shimmer of blush on the colorless gem, she wasn't going to do anything to hurt Ammolite.

"Let's go inside and sleep on it." Ivory suggested, it was late. The four got off Hambergite and dragged her inside, "Sleepover time?" Ivory asked.

"Sleepover time." Steven said.

"Gems don't need to sleep." Ammolite started.

"Here we go again." Amethyst said, shutting the door behind her.

"I'll have to give my parents a quick call to let them know I'm staying..." Connie started.

* * *

The weather changed completely, as the warm nights turned to a fierce cold one. All the windows were slammed shut and the door locked up, all the blankets were out and everyone was cuddled together for warmth. Lapis laid behind Ivory, while Connie rested on the other side, and Garnet laid on the other side while everyone else piled around Garnet for warmth, Amethyst and Steven lying on her, while Ammolite laid behind Garnet holding Hambergite, who was still tied up. Pearl, who was still in her gem, and might be for a very long time, wasn't alone either though, she placed under Ivory's pillow, staying warm as well.

* * *

Steven was the first one up this time, and he wanted to make breakfast for everyone before anyone else woke up so he did the best he could.

 **ONE HOUR LATER**

Garnet and everyone else awoke to Steven running around banging pots together. Ivory picked up Pearl from under her pillow after Connie got off of her, the morning was awfully warm compared to the cold night.

"Wakey, wakey, eggs, and eggs, and toast!" Steven shouted. And he wasn't kidding about the eggs part. They were everywhere… well there was a lot of them. Ivory yawned and stretched and realized her armband was missing, she forgot that she destroyed it, she noticed the scars and became frantic.

"They're even worse than I remember." Ivory muttered to herself, only Connie heard her.

"Hey. Those aren't scars." Connie touched her forearm gently and stretched the skin a little. "Those are those imprint things you get from wrinkles and stuff lying against you for so long. Your arm's fine." Connie smiled and Ivory's childishness.

"Right, right." Ivory sighed, she still wanted to cover her arms though, the armguard reappeared once again. "Hey, we never asked Taaffeite anything." she reminded everyone.

"Taaffeite?" Connie asked. "There's more gems?"

"Yes, there's a lot like us." Ivory replied. "Watermelon Tourmaline… Isn't he here?" Ivory asked Garnet.

"Yes." Garnet answered.

"I thought he was corrupted." Amethyst replied.

"I can do something about that!" Ammolite shouted out of no where.

"What do you mean?" Amethyst crossed her arms.

"Take me to him!" Ammolite grinned. "I'm going to show you something cool." Garnet walked away, not showing Ammolite the way into the temple, but returned with the bubbled gem. The gem had baguette cut, split into two colors, a celery green and a soft pink. It had some type of seal, like all corrupted gems have.

"Here." Garnet popped the bubble and handed it to Ammolite, watching carefully. Ammolite held it looking back and forth and said brightly.

"Prepare to be amazed!" Ammolite rolled the gem in her hands quickly, and the seal just… came off. "Are you ready?" Ammolite jumped up, throwing the stone into the air revealing the gem.

"Oh my god! Another gem!" Connie exclaimed, her eyes lighting up, same as Steven's. The gem had long moss green hair, bangs filled in his face, covering his left eye, tied back with a pink ribbon. The gem's skin was a pale green but had golden freckles all over his body. This gem was a little taller than Connie and had a rectangular body shape, he wore a red vest with two chest pockets with pink five-pointed stars on them, forest green slacks and light pink sandals. He smiled and looked around, his smile faded instantly.

"Turquoise?" he looked around. "Where am I? Where's Turquoise?" the gem went out of the beach house.

"Hey, wait!" Steven shouted, following the gem outside. "My name's… Steven..." the gem was gone. "Where'd he go?" Steven groaned, thinking he'd make a new friend, but it just didn't happen. Steven sighed, the other rushed after him to just find him standing sadly. Connie put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, he gave a small smile.

"What's got him down?" Ammolite asked.

"He wanted to make a friend." Ivory answered, standing back from Steven, who could hear them, quite clearly at that.

"So… we don't count?" Ammolite crossed her arms.

"Oh… my...GOD!" Steven burst up from his sad state and ran to Ammolite. "You're going to be my friend?! Oh that's so cool! You even remind me of Ruby a little, but that's because you're both tiny and have a temper."

"I am tiny, aren't I?" she blushed, her cheeks becoming silver. She was probably the most curious of them, besides Garnet of course. Her gem location couldn't be revealed unless her pendant and wristbands were destroyed, she was an ancient organic that was rebellious and rather friendly.

"Oh… oh! I have an idea!" Steven ran inside and reached under Ivory's pillow, "Where's Pearl?" Ivory pulled Pearl out of her pocket.

"She's with me." Ivory spoke loud enough for Steven to hear.

"Let me see her!" Steven begged, Ivory handed over the gem to Steven delicately. He snagged it from her and handed it to Ammolite.

"Can you quicken her regeneration?" Steven asked.

"Believe it or not..." Ammolite started, she rubbed her hands together and the gem started to light up. "I can't do it all the time, but I can, _quicken_ , the regeneration process." The Pearl's gem glowed, brighter and brighter, until Pearl regenerated. It was almost instant, strange, how could she have "quickened" it up that much? Pearl returned, with two differences. Her yellow-orange leggings were no longer short, they slipped into her flats, rather like tights, so her pink socks were now missing.

"It worked..." Amethyst muttered.

"That shouldn't be possible." Garnet crossed her arms, pretending not to be impressed but the statement on its own, was.

"It's why I didn't want her around you guys." Hambergite grumbled, still tied up.

"We're not going to manipulate her to do our bidding." Lapis said immediately for the Crystal Gems. "You guys are here, because we're your friends, like Steven said." Lapis hesitated to untie Hambergite, but did anyway.

"We're not going to ask you to fight with us. We would like you to stay, to make sure you aren't going to cause trouble." Garnet helped Hambergite up, Hambergite nervously accepted the hand and looked toward the exit then back at Ammolite. Hambergite began to solidify, as in, gain color. Her hair was a creamy white and her eyes were golden, her cape was brown with a light brown brooch. She seemed to have similar color palette as Ivory. The dress underneath was clearly the same cream-white as her hair. Her skin was pale yellow, and had freckles all over her body.

"What did I miss?" Pearl asked casually, seeing everyone stare at her, then at Ammolite, then back to Pearl. Ivory looked at her watch and counted the days.

"72 hours to go." Ivory muttered to herself.

* * *

/This is where the countdown begins. Thanks for reading everyone!


	9. Confrontation: Part 3

**Chapter 8: Confrontation #3**

Diopside reported in, telling Benitoite everything that happened, how Phospho and Taaffeite were captured and Ivory's treason and the stowaways.

"Are you serious?" Benitoite asked.

"'fraid so." Diopside replied, Benitoite went on a tantrum and knocked everything off her desk, including her console.

"Beni! Calm down!" the director next to Benitoite shouted at her.

"What's going on over there?" the gem was definitely a Diamond, and the Diamond in charge of this quadrant was the Yellow Diamond, the silhouette of her body overcast to the console.

"I've had enough of this!" Benitoite shouted and revolted against the Diamond yelling at her. "Screw Homeworld and this job!" Benitoite lost it, two other figures removed her from the circular room though sounds of a struggle continued for a few seconds after. Benitoite was sure to get a punishment, however it was unknown as to what it would be currently. The emitting end of the transmission, crashed. Diopside knew that the escort was still coming, and that her partners' jobs needed to be taken care of; being in combat with the Crystal Gems was enough to file a rough draft of a report to the replacement director. Diopside started writing each and every word in her mind as if her entire being was a computer. The next, was to reactivate the kindergarten, which would be easy as she's already there, hiding one of the holes. And then the last was to capture Ivory, and return with her. However, she'd have to exceed further to gain her reputation back. She knew where to start, the Temple must've had hundreds, thousands of gems in there. Artifacts, objects, corrupted, or damaged. She knew they could be healed, and that if she could make it that far in, she could gain a whole new level of authority, and be even closer to the Diamonds.

* * *

The crystal gems ran into the kindergarten, someone was attempting to activate it. Despite how much they looked around, they couldn't find any gem, nevertheless Diopside, that could've activated it. There was literally no sign of life anywhere, other than themselves. Ivory continued looking around, trying to find Diopside, she was the most concerned about her than anyone.

"Ivory, she's not here. Let's just go back." Amethyst groaned, Garnet didn't say anything, but it was evident that she didn't want to be here any longer than necessary.

"I still don't understand what is going on." Pearl said returning to the Warp Pad with everyone, it was a little crowded, but she was glad that all the newcomers weren't screwing things up. Everything was turned off now, there was no point staying there. The light brought all of them back to the Temple to find everything calm except one thing. The Temple door was opened for a moment, it was another Garnet. Garnet ran up to the door and opened it, the imitation Garnet punched the real Garnet. Ammolite slipped past the two Garnets as she was tiny enough to, the door was opened to the bubble room, where all the bad gems were bubbled.

"Ammolite! Wait!"Diopside was looking among the gems, she popped one and then another. Jasper and Peridot were now freed and reforming. Ammolite pushed Diopside back from the two, attempting to keep her from popping anymore bubbles. Peridot was instantly looking around and was debating on popping everything, or just reporting it and coming back later. Peridot looked at one in particular, the centipeedle. It had a seal, but she popped it anyway. Jasper however looked among them and had no interest whatsoever.

"Wait, you're the one that can break corrupted seals..." Diopside held Ammolite by the throat.

"There's a gem that can do that?" Peridot said, holding the corrupted gem. Peridot looked at Ammolite and handed the corrupted gem to her. "Fix it." Normally, Peridot didn't care if something was broken, but if they could fix corrupted gems, they wouldn't need anyone else to take care of this planet; All the assistance they need would already be there. Ammolite held the gem gently within her hands, waiting for someone to come. Jasper smack Ammolite into the ground, cracking the pavement.

"You were given an order." Jasper reminded her. Ammolite took a deep breath, took one more look behind her, and rubbed the gem quickly between her palms as the seal fell off. The gem light up but Ammolite hesitated on throwing it up, but if she held it for too long, then… Ammolite threw the gem into the air and Hambergite made it past the Gilson Garnet and ran to Ammolite, but was sufficiently blocked by Jasper. The gem light up and the form started to appear but instantly went back into it's gem, knowing that a "bad" gem was around. The gem fell to the floor

"Take her." Peridot said, Diopside picked up Ammolite, throwing Ammolite over her shoulder. "Let's get out of here." Peridot added, after picking up the recently un-corrupted gem.

"I need to find the ones who came with me." Diopside replied.

"Forget them." Peridot didn't care about them, "We go back to Homeworld."

"Can't." Diopside spoke immediately.

"Why not?" Peridot snapped at Diopside.

"No ship, no warp to home."

"Hey! Am I interrupting?!" Hambergite shoved Jasper down and walked up to Diopside. "How about you hand over my girl right about now?!" Hambergite shouted. Peridot shot at Hambergite, and an explosion went off at impact.

"We need to leave." Diopside said.

"I'm not running away like a coward." Jasper said.

"You are a coward, Jasper. Now get over yourself and fight another day so you can actually be victorious for once." Diopside said, Peridot's jaw dropped, but Jasper had nothing to say. Apparently Jasper and Diopside knew each other. The Homeworld gems ran to the warp pad, past everyone. The two Garnets continued fighting, Pearl kept her eyes on Peridot but couldn't reach her. Jasper glared at Lapis, almost swearing that she'd kill her another day, the feeling was mutual. Hambergite ran after them, only because they had Ammolite. Amethyst was trying to help Garnet, and Ivory was protecting Steven. One of the Garnets got up and joined the Homeworld gems on the warp pad as they vanished. The chaos stopped as the trace of the enemy left, Pearl looked at Garnet, trying to understand what happened. Garnet got up and punched the wall.

"Whoa! Garnet… c-calm down." Amethyst said, "You almost hit m…!" Garnet punched Amethyst and continued hitting her. Pearl held Garnet back, but Garnet hit her too.

"That's not the real Garnet." Ivory claimed, "The gauntlets, never had spiked tips." Ivory pulled a scarf out of thin air and used it to pull the Gilson Garnet back from Amethyst. The imitation eventually poofed. "The replicator is going to be an endless amount of grief for me."

"So, the real Garnet is with them?"

"Oh my gosh, she is brilliant." Pearl chuckled.

"So… we just wait for her to come back?" Lapis asked.

"NO!" Hambergite shouted in reply. "They… they're going to use Ammolite to un-corrupt all those gems… She, she wont' be able to take it!" Hambergite stormed back and forth.

"Garnet can handle them." Steven cheered.

"No, she can't… she can hardly handle Diopside, nevertheless Jasper, a-a-and Peridot. And Jade, and the two that are coming. Garnet can't handle that many enemies at once…!" Hambergite screamed. Ivory placed a hand on Hambergite's shoulder.

"We'll have to give them a minute anyway." Ivory said.

"I can track them, they used the warp pad, so it'll tell us exactly where they went." Pearl explained, "After that we can apprehend them, without showing any mercy. They won't get away with invading the temple, and stealing Ammolite, right?"

"Right!" Steven shouted in glee, but no one was feeling the energy he was. Hambergite was pissed, Lapis and Ivory felt lost inside, Amethyst felt obsolete, and Pearl was oblivious to all of this. Ivory checked her watch.

 **60 HOURS REMAIN**

* * *

/Short chapter again, but this was, straight into the action so I wanted to keep it short this time. Thanks for reading!


	10. Confrontation: Part 4

**Chapter 9: Confrontation #4**

It was late, but no one felt like sleeping. They usually went to bed with joy, even when it was a slow day, but this… this was different. It had been four hours and there was nothing, not a trace of them, no disturbance of any kind. And with Garnet gone, they couldn't do anything, no missions. No body wanted to play, so Steven was out with Connie, doing their own thing. Most likely, Steven was telling her what happened today. Pearl and Amethyst were nervous, they knew Hambergite was a ticking-time-bomb, waiting to go off, so the all conversations between the two were silent. Lapis and Ivory were the most nervous, as they weren't used to this location. Everything that was said or done, would most likely be monitored, or noticed. For Hambergite, she was the one being constantly watched as they were waiting for a spectacular display of rage to come. Hambergite was patient though, patient enough. Night fell, and Steven came home. The night grew ever colder, as the summer nights were ending, and fall was coming. Connie would have to go back to school, and their time would be limited as well. Each of them was thinking of the past and comparing it to the possibilities of the future. One-by-one, the their heads fell, looking at the ground. Night fell, Steven returned. It was the one time he returned home without a smile, as if he already anticipated grim faces when he came home. Amethyst and Pearl eventually went to their rooms, Steven went to bed, Hambergite sat out in the cold, and Lapis was even farther then Hambergite. Lapis was manipulating the water to stay close to her, but not touching her. Ivory laid on the couch cushions, trying to sleep, but there was something wrong with her this time.

* * *

Ivory laid on the ground, crippled, like a kicked puppy. The beach, light up in flames, the city starting to spark as the Homeworld gems arrived. Where were the others? They said they'd fight. Were Steven and Connie okay? Ivory looked around once again, gem shards, force fused… It was Garnet's gem: Ruby and Sapphire. They were all that way, Ammolite, Hambergite, Amethyst, Pearl, and Lapis… fractured into pieces and reformed as a mix. Ivory shook her head, was this what happened in the battle for Earth? The image of the cluster appeared into her mind, but she didn't recognize it. Diopside was standing in front of Ivory, and pushed her down. Why was she so weak? So much weaker than ever… Ivory attempted to find her feet, but failed. She was surrounded by many figures, three she didn't recognize. Taaffeite, Diopside, Phosphophyllite, Jasper, Peridot, and the other three. Ivory looked up at the Temple, it was being consumed in fire.

"Ivory!" Steven shouted, breaking the circle. Ivory found the strength to stand but one of the figure held her back. Ivory didn't understand who these people were or what was going on. "Come on!" Steven summoned his shield, Jasper punched the shield with no luck.

"Steven, just… run!" Ivory screamed at him, fighting the figure holding her back. This was a dream, wasn't it? "Go, I'll catch up!"

"No! There's n-no one left… I-I'm not leaving you t-too." Steven choked on his words, the fragments of the gems on the shore were going to be washed away. Ivory summoned her sai, just to have the weapon be the instrument of her demise as a fourth figure grabbed the handle after the full weapon was by her neck, and plunged it into the back of her neck. "Ivy!" he shouted, as everything went black.

* * *

Ivory burst up from her sleep, grabbing her throat and looking around. It hadn't been long, maybe an hour? Or two? Ammolite had grabbed Ivory's shirt collar in attempt to wake her up.

"Ammolite? Oh thank—!" Ivory started.

"Shush, be quiet." Ammolite said. "I don't have much time. They found out about Garnet and she's going to be damaged if you don't get to her soon." Ammolite said.

"We need to wake the others, and..." Ivory started.

"No! I mean, it has to be just you. If you bring someone else, then… they'll hurt the both of you." Ammolite explained. Ivory thought for a moment, why would they want just her? Or just one person to pick up Garnet? Did it really not matter to them at this point? But this was blackmail! This was done, this way, for a reason.

"Right." Ivory said, sitting up. Ammolite ran to the warp pad with haste. "Where are we going?" Ivory asked, walking up to the loft, kissing Steven goodnight, and possibly, goodbye.

"Seychelles." Ammolite replied, it was apparent this was a trap.

"Okay." Ivory said loud enough for Steven to wake up. Steven woke up, rubbed his eyes, saw Ivory and was about to speak but she put her index finger to her mouth. Steven nodded, Ivory whispered: "Seychelles." and proceeded to leave. Ivory ran to the warp pad, and vanished within the light.

"Amethyst! Pearl! Everyone! Please!" Steven shouted, getting everyone's attention. Hopefully.

 **MEANWHILE ON SEYCHELLES**

Ivory and Ammolite arrived; Ivory was reminding herself that the others were safe at home. Pearl, Amethyst, Steven… they were safe. Taaffeite and Phosphophyllite were trapped in the temple still, and the escorts hadn't arrived yet. It was just Peridot, Jasper and Diopside… Then there was Garnet, and she could help. Right? Ivory felt more and more nervous and stopped moving.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Ammolite asked, Ivory's gem glowed.

"I… I don't trust you." The island was much different from the shores they were at, as it was almost morning at Beach City, but the sun was setting here. There was a moment of silence.

"You shouldn't." Ammolite said as Jasper came out from the trees and grabbed Ivory, placing chains around her wrists and torso. Seeming to an awful lot of satisfaction from this. "I'm sorry." she said. "It was either you or Hambergite..." Ammolite explained.

"You made the right choice." Ivory replied, giving a small smile. Ivory was okay with the concept of death, as she was thought to be suicidal, but there's a difference between being okay with being dead, and wanting to be dead. "Where's the Garnet that went with you? And Peridot?" Ivory said.

"Oh, no more questions." Diopside said, holding her scythe in hand. "My mission was to babysit this one, and teach her a lesson." Ammolite and Jasper went into the trees again, as Diopside mocked Ivory. "Funny, you actually managed to hurt me at our first encounter. I thought they sent one extremely weak informant here so the planet could just be destroyed."

"We have very different, ugh, meanings of 'funny'." Ivory replied, daring to speak up, and talk back to a superior.

"Quiet!" Diopside hit Ivory's back with the end of her scythe. "What kind of experience gave you the gall to talk like that?" Diopside scolded.

"The parts where you had to run away, and the other time where you had to get the help of cowards to even get this far." Ivory smiled, "They'll find you, I know they will." Ivory bantered at Diopside. Diopside punched Ivory, Ivory flinched, that was definitely going to leave a bruise.

"Shut it. You don't know what you're talking about." Diopside started, pulling out a small device, one that Ivory recognized.

"I know more than you. All those years of fighting and 'experience' and you can't manage to get an inferior gem under control." Ivory continued. "Teach that informant a lesson. Wait for the escorts, and return home. Is this the only action you've got since the war? No wonder..." Diopside punched her again, and again, and again… Then used the device on her. This would be of use later. Ivory coughed, "I heard you brutal, but really… You had no idea what you were doing when you sent those gems into battle." Diopside swiped her scythe at Ivory, making her shut up… And retreat to her gem. The little piece of ivory, shaped like a jasmine flower remained.

"Stupid little..." Diopside groaned.


	11. Confrontation: Part 5

**Chapter 10: Confrontation #5**

The warp pad light up the island as the sun abandoned the shore. Pearl saw Diopside and scooped the sand, and lifted it up a handful. Throwing it at Diopside, blinding her momentarily.

"Good call Steven." Pearl said. Steven smiled, and looked around, for Garnet, for Ammolite, for Ivory. "I'll take care of her." Pearl added, "Go find the others, all of you." Pearl directed, trying to be strong, be a leader this once. Amethyst, Steven, Hambergite and Lapis ran into the trees.

"You're pathetic..." Diopside started, "You had to get your servant to fight for you against Taaffeite, you think you can handle me?"

"I'm what could-be-called a south sea pearl, do you know what that means?" Pearl started, "It means you can't get a replacement for me, I can't be replicated." Pearl summoned her spear and threw it at Diopside, Diopside dodged at the last second. Pearl burst from the pad, and lunged at Diospide, as she landed, the "jasmine flower" got covered in sand, hidden from the two.

"I don't care what you are." Diopside summoned her scythe, "You're weak." Diopside slashed at Pearl who blocked with her spear, there was momentary struggle. Diopside head-butted Pearl making her fall back from the fight and drop her spear. "You're nothing." Diopside kicked her side. "You're pathetic." she continued, about the slash the scythe into Pearl's side. "You're not even a real gem. You're organic, no organic gem is a **_real_** gem." Pearl flipped over and grabbed the handle before it hit on her. "Oh, come on. We both know how this ends." Pearl chuckled.

"You don't know anything about me." Pearl turned the handle, making the weapon fall from Diopside's hands and into Pearl's. Pearl struck Diopside with her own weapon and threw it into the water. Pearl touched the sand again and threw it around Diopside's ankles, which proceeded to turn into chains. "Set. Match." she smiled, summoned her spear once more and pierced Diopside. Pearl picked up the baguette shaped gem, and bubbled it. "One down, three to go." Pearl said, then ran into the trees. "Now to get Garnet!" The tide rose higher, pull the sand off the gem by the shore. Slowly pulling the piece of ivory in as well.

* * *

Steven immediately spotted Sapphire and Ruby. Ammolite wasn't tied up, but she definitely was being cornered by Peridot. Steven saw the two tiny gems, glad to see they were okay, but definitely still tired from waking up three hours earlier than he was supposed to.

"Amethyst get Ruby and Sapphire!" Steven directed. "Hambergite, get Ammolite. Lapis, you and I are taking on Jasper."

"Steven, I don't think you can take on Jasper." Lapis said, as Jasper heard Steven's orders.

"So, Rose Quartz dares to take me on?" Jasper started.

"My name is… Steven!" Steven shouted, summoning his shield with the thought of Connie fighting with him, though it was actually Lapis whom was supporting him. Steven bumped Jasper with his shield, pushing the muscular gem back with a vibrating thud.

"Come on, Lapis!" Steven said. Hambergite ran up Peridot.

"Ammolite!" she shouted, Ammolite's eye light up with the sight of her partner.

"Oh, great..." Peridot mumbled. "Why do you clods always have to mess **_everything_** up?!" Peridot shouted, organizing the cylinders on her hand, that were supposed to be her fingers, to line up together and blast Hambergite.

"That's ENOUGH!" Hambergite was enraged all day, this is where it would pay off. The blast ricocheted off of her and back at Peridot, managing to earn a shrill shriek from the gem. That was enough to keep Peridot down for the moment.

"Hambergite!" Ammolite jumped into her partner's arms, hugging her tightly.

"Are you hurt? Please tell me you're okay..." Hambergite started to go off.

"I'm okay, I'm okay. Are you alright?" Ammolite looked up into Hambergite's eyes, the taller gem didn't say anything and just embraced the small gem.

"What in the name of my ancestors is going on?!" there was another gem, a new one. How many gems were actually out there? Steven stopped at the new voice, which made him vulnerable to Jasper's fist. Steven was knocked back into a tree, despite the shield taking some of the hit.

"Steven!" Lapis shouted, Amethyst looked back after freeing Ruby and Sapphire. The two fused and created Garnet in an instant, their bond being to protect Steven. Garnet grabbed Jasper's arm.

"Ready for round two?" she asked, punched Jasper back into another series of trees. The new gem stood blinking rapidly, trying to understand what she saw. This gem was tall, and muscular, but slender, like Garnet, with a lot of curves. She had long arms and legs, painted fingernails and arm guards. Her gem couldn't be located, except when she was shouting. It was at the back of her throat. Smart, the gem placement made it hard to reach, so it can't be damaged easily. The gem had huge lilac colored eyes, and dark green skin with blue freckles. Her outfit consists of a long torn up skirt a mint green color with worn down white lace that covered her belly button, that is, if she had one. A mint tank top with a lilac shirt underneath, and white shawl, the sleeves turning into blue as they reached her wrists. She wore black leggings, along with the long skirt, and had blue flats. She was pretty colorful, she looked at Steven in concern. She ran up to Steven, he wasn't hurt severely, so that was good.

"H-Hey, buddy. Are you, o-okay?" she stuttered, seemingly awfully familiar.

"The centipeetle." Steven stared at her in awe. "You were the centipeetle!" The girl stepped back and ran. "H-Hey, wait!" Steven tried to get up, but couldn't get up fast enough.

"Steven! Why did I say about fighting?!" Pearl held him back, knowing that he was in danger. "We're leaving as soon as we can… Where's Ivory?" she asked, looking around.

"She wasn't here, wasn't she out there with you?" Amethyst asked. "Oh no." They all fled, and separated. Peridot ran for it, leaving Jasper behind. Homeworld gems couldn't stay together, or fight for each other.

"Diopside must've made her retreat into her gem!" Pearl said. "I-I didn't see her, and she didn't have I-Ivory..." Pearl started to become frantic. "She could be in the ground, or i-in the ocean! That other gem could've had her..." Pearl screamed.

"Pearl, calm down!" Amethyst said, Pearl was trying to keep it together in front of Steven. "If she fell into the water, Lapis can get her. Right?" Lapis was speechless as Amethyst looked back at her. "R-Right?"

"Ivory… sh-she's waterproof." Lapis replied, saying Ivory was immune to her hydrokinesis.

"Oh, god where is she…?!" Pearl panicked, she felt responsible for this, even though she wasn't in any way. "I-I have to find her, guys, please help..." Pearl moved layers of sand away all around, but she was no where to be found. Hour after hour, of searching and there was no sign of her gem. Pearl was tired, physically, mentally, emotionally… She cried as the sun started to come up.

"Pearl, let's just go back." Hambergite said, "It's just one of us, she'll show up sooner or..."

"WHAT?!" Pearl shot up and glared at Hambergite. "She's not just _one of us,_ she's an organic! She's our friend! She is a gem! And she is lost!" Pearl shouted. "Do you remember how awful you felt when Ammolite was taken?!" Pearl went off.

"Pearl..." Steven shuddered.

"At least she had Garnet! Ivory is on her own, she's fragile! She's not strong enough to be on her own, especially if she runs into another Homeworld gem!" Pearl shouted rubbing her eyes. "You don't understand..." Pearl gasped for breath. S _he knew all organic gems were much weaker than any other metal or mineral…_

 **48 HOURS REMAIN**

* * *

/Fact: I have a theory that the reason why Ruby and Sapphire are so close and can stay fused for so long, is because they are both made of corundum, have a hardness of 9 and an approximate specific gravity of four even.


	12. Crisis

**Chapter 11: Crisis**

The ivory carved jasmine flower was pulled into the ocean, under, under, under… Ivory laid under the water, a small field around the gem. On the inside, Ivory had no hesitance. The only thing she had to cover was her collar again as Diopside cut her throat. So she made one edit. A little star, a dark chestnut five-pointed star on her turtle neck collar, and she was good to go this time. Ivory noticed that she'd have her gloves and headband back, which meant her ponytail. Ivory decided against that, armguards were good, and she liked her hair down. Why not? Ivory hesitated, what if Diopside was still there? What if she was just going going to be destroyed whenever she came back? Ivory hesitated. No, everything would be fine… Steven would have gotten the others up, and they would find her. Ivory waited a little, then flicked out of the water, flipping her hair back and taking a deep breath. It was bright out and there was no sign of them, no one was there. What was taking them so long? Ivory walked over to the warp pad, wondering if anything had happened. There was still no sign of any gem. Ivory carried herself back into the temple with the help of the warp pad, no one there.

"Steven? Pearl? Amethyst?" Ivory called out, "Ammolite? Lapis? Garnet?" Still nothing. Maybe they were all out, or busy? "Hambergite…?" Nothing. Ivory stepped outside, onto the beach. The tides were low, and there was nothing out there. Ivory decided to walk into town, see if anyone else knew Steven and the others. The closest place was a car wash, but it wasn't open. And there was no around, so Ivory kept walking. She went to the next place, a donut shop. The Big Donut.

"Excuse me, um…" Ivory spoke quietly, speaking the man by the coffee machine. "Do you know where the Crystal Gems are?" the man gave a weird look, "Er Steven, and Pearl?"

"What do you want with someone like him?" a man asked, he had ginger hair, fashioned into a sort of mowhawk; stretched out earlobes with tunnels in them. He wore a long sleeved white shirt with a green collar poking out of a dull purple shirt, with a half eaten donut on it, the company's lodo. A denim blue pair of ripped jeans and dark green high tops with mint laces. He looked over at Ivory, eyed her once, twice, thrice, and smiled. "I don't think I've seen you around here, cutie." he added.

"I-I live with Steven, for right n-n-now anyway." Ivory replied, blushing intensely.

"Wh-What's your name?" he leaned on the counter.

"Ivory." her face turned bright red, crossing her arms. Becoming more shy each second. "Yours?"

"Lars, sweetie." he chuckled.

"And hers?" Ivory looked at the woman by the counter, glaring at Lars.

"That's, uh… Sadie. She's just my co-worker." he whispered. Sadie is short and heavyset, with curly blonde hair. Her uniform consists of a periwinkle polo underneath a purple shirt, which is displaying the Big Donut logo. she also wears black leggings and magenta ballet flats. Ivory ran up to Sadie, slightly making her jump.

"Excuse me, d-do you know a boy named Steven?" Ivory asked. Sadie blinked rapidly.

"I-I, uh..." Sadie coughed, "I do."

"Do you know where he is?" Ivory continued.

"N-No… He's usually by the beach, the one with the huge eight limbed lady." Sadie explained. Ivory looked down sadly. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm okay. I'm just worried…" Ivory replied. "What's today?"

"It's the tenth." Sadie said, after a moment of thinking.

"When the tweleth comes, hide. There's something big coming. Trust me." Ivory placed a hand on Sadie's shoulder. "Get out of town, set up reinforcements. It's going to be bad." Ivory ran out of the building.

"H-Hey, wait!" Lars and Sadie said in sync as the door shut behind Ivory. Ivory had to figure out where they were.

* * *

All of the gems were in the Temple, interrogating Diopside, but they couldn't get anything else out of her.

"What do you want from me?!" Diopside screamed, "I can't tell you tossers what I don't know!"

"You have to know something!" Pearl screeched.

"Wait." Garnet said. "She's reformed. She's in the city." Garnet said.

"How do you know?" Ammolite asked.

"I'm seeing multiple possibilities of one of us meeting her in the streets." Garnet replied, "Gems, let's go!"

"We need a plan." Pearl evenly distributed a gem to a certain part of the city, and then ran out of the temple to look for Ivory. Diopside was tightly tied up, and bubbled. She'd be stuck for a good ten minutes at least. The gems began to search the city. "Back here in five minutes!" the gems ran about the streets but Steven didn't bother, he went inside the Big Donut.

"Well maybe I thought she was my type too." Sadie said, "Did you ever think I liked her?"

"Uh… what?" Steven muttered.

"Two donuts, or the usual?" Lars said immediately.

"How about a dozen this time? I've got a lot of company."

"What?!" Lars went off, Sadie nudged him. "Oh, right… Ivory lives with you." Lars grumbled.

"You SAW her?!" Steven slammed his hands on the counter and gave a wide smile with stars in his eyes, "Where did she go? What did she say?!" he continued.

"She warned us… about the eleventh." Sadie came into the conversation. "You know what that was about?" Steven stared at her for a long time.

"Nope!" Steven replied. "Where'd she head off to?"

"She just ran toward the Boardwalk." Lars groaned.

"Thanks, bye!" Steven ran out of the building and toward the boardwalk, running into Amethyst on the way. "Amethyst!" he ran up to her. "Amethyst! Amethyst… She's around here somewhere. Sadie and Lars saw her. They said she went over here!"

* * *

The boardwalk was full of fleeing people, the place was shattered, and in pieces, there was Hambergite and Ivory. The two were fighting, there was a crowd screaming, hiding inside the nearby building. Amethyst and Steven ran up as Hambergite stepped back from the fight, Ivory had her two sai in hand. Hambergite had a sword as her weapon, it practically invisible but it was easy to make out a blade. Hambergite swung down onto Ivory, which proceeded to block.

"Why don't you just tell me where she is?" Ivory asked.

"Ivory?" Amethyst started, "What's going on?"

"Oh nothing." Ivory replied, "Just a little something called betrayal."

"Amethyst… What's she talking about?" Steven looked up at Amethyst.

"Hambergite freed Diopside." Ivory said.

"She's lying!" Hambergite screamed.

"Steven, go get the others." Amethyst said, "Pearl should be the closest." Steven nodded and ran off, the three gems stood there patiently. One of them waiting for the attack, Hambergite glared at Ivory. "So what other crap is going to be told?" Amethyst said.

"What?" Hambergite replied.

"You told Steven you were going to be his friend!" Amethyst summoned her whip and slashed at Hambergite.

"She's lying to you!" Hambergite dodged. "She's trying to find Ammolite, and use her to free..." Hambergite started.

"Shut it!" Amethyst shouted, "I shouldn't have trusted you, especially with Steven!" Amethyst slashed at Hambergite.

"Amethyst, she's playing us!" Hambergite replied.

"I need to go! Diopside and everyone is escaping!" Ivory said.

"Not so fast!" Garnet appeared, gauntlets at the ready.

"What is it?! They're getting away!" Ivory shouted.

"Which hand has Sapphire's gem on it? And who won the swim race the other day?" Garnet asked, looking at Ivory with a glare.

"What?!" Ivory cringed, "This isn't a time for questions like that!"

"Who was it?! Where is it?!" Garnet repeated, the other two stopped fighting.

"Right… and Lapis." Ivory replied. Garnet walked up to her punched her.

"Wrong." Garnet knew something was wrong with Ivory, her eyes were golden, they were a dark chestnut. There was always something wrong with each copy.

"She was searching for Ammolite, to release more corrupted gems and make them work for the Homeworld Gems." Hambergite shouted.

"Wait, that's not the real Ivory?!" Amethyst groaned.

"Where's Ivory?" Ammolite and Pearl ran in.

"Not here." Garnet replied, holding the fake Ivory by the wrists. Ivory proceeding to headbutt Garnet and attempt to stab her, but Garnet moved away in time. Garnet flipped Ivory over, and made her land flat on her back.

"Where have you not checked in the city?"

"Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl!" Steven shouted, somewhere far away. A familiar face landed next to the gems.

"Guys, I found her!" Lapis said, "She's with Steven but there's something wrong with her."

"We need to get to her fast." Pearl said, "We need a plan."

"No, we need just you two." Garnet said. "Lapis, can you carry Pearl?"

"Shouldn't be too hard." Lapis replied.

"Pearl, you're an organic gem. You'll know more than the rest of us, now go." Lapis flew up, and grabbed Pearl's hands and flew towards Steven's shouts.

"Steven!" Pearl called out to him.

"Pearl! Lapis… she's not waking up!" Steven said.

"Gems shouldn't be able to pass out like that..." Lapis said, "Right?"

"Organics… are different." Pearl replied, "When they get into this state, it's like they're hibernating."

"What do you mean?" Lapis knelt by Ivory.

"If gems rush their regeneration, they have flaws. Organics rush theirs, it's different… They take longer. Days, if not weeks. So, she must've rushed hers. And now she's sick." Pearl explained.

"That doesn't make any sense." Lapis cringed.

"It's like breaking a leg and trying to walk on it a week later." Steven replied.

"What does that mean?"

"It means, she's not going to recover for awhile under any circumstances." Pearl replied, "She's going to be hurting for that time as well."

"Can she retreat into her gem? Healing in there would be painless." Lapis added.

"She has hardly any control over her body, she's going to be a mini-coma." Pearl said.

"What about Ammolite? She can remove the seals on corrupted gems, and speed up the process of regeneration, can she help?" Steven asked; Pearl shook her head.

"Ammolite, is capable of a lot, but this. This take a much longer time. Even if Ammolite _could_ speed up the process, it would increase the pain and cause abnormalities." Pearl sighed. A small beeping went off for a moment. Steven located the small watch under her armguard.

 **36 HOURS REMAIN**


	13. Countdown

**Chapter 12: Countdown**

It wasn't long before the others caught up, just to find Ivory slumped in the dirt. Garnet agreed to carry her home, most of them were thinking none of this should be happening. Hambergite and Amethyst thought it was Ivory's own fault for having to regenerate anyway. If Ivory had gotten the others sooner, she wouldn't have had to regenerate, but then it came to Steven's mind that Ivory trusted him with this task.

"It's not her fault!" Steven shouted at them. "She told me where she would be, and I knew there was trouble..."

"It's my fault." Ammolite replied, "I was to bring her back, and I could've brought all of you here and none of this would've happened." Garnet was thinking, she should've been stronger and just retrieved Ammolite without attacking them. That she could've prevented making herself a hostage.

"There always needs to be someone to blame, isn't there?" Lapis spoke up, making the entire room go silent. "You can blame whoever you want, but last I checked we were a team, or at the very least, I thought Ivory committed herself to whatever this is. And I think she did otherwise she wouldn't be in this condition..." Lapis took a deep breath, to compose herself. "Ivory's watch is counting down to something, and I don't know what, and whoever might now is unconscious, missing or inside their gem. We need to prepare for whatever it might be."

"I think, I might know." Pearl replied, after a moment. "She said, an escort was coming." Pearl reminded them. "I believe someone else did too, and said their name."

"Connie interrogated Phosphophyllite." Hambergite added, not forgetting the previous conversation. "She might know the names, unless you guys can remember their names."

"You were right next to her, why don't you remember?" Amethyst replied.

"Excuse me, I didn't want something that would destroy my face in minutes in my eyes, while I was tied up with your stupid whip!" Hambergite snarled.

"Can I just call Connie?" Steven said, blank-faced.

"Yes." Garnet answered as Steven ran over to phone, dialed her number and waited.

 _"Hi, Steven."_ Connie picked up the phone.

"How'd you know it was me?"

 _"You're the only one who has my number other than my parents, and they're behind me."_ Connie chuckled, Steven laughed awkwardly for a moment.

"Hey, Connie, do you remember, the names Phospho said… You know, the escorts?" Steven asked.

 _"Yeah, I did a little research on them too. The gem anyway..."_ Connie replied, _"Their names were Emerald and Jet._ _The two are going to be very, very different. Jet is almost completely made of_ _carbon,_ _whereas diamond is completely made of carbon,_ _or lignite, I read different books and they told me different things_ _. So they might be just as tough, but it's a fossilized wood, another organic gem."_

"Connie, I've never… heard of jet before, or seen it really." Steven replied.

 _"It's hardly used in jewelry anymore, but it really caught on in 1861 when Queen Victoria wore it at a funeral, it's really amazing."_ Connie continued.

"What about Emerald?" Steven changed the subject, not wanting to get into the history.

 _"_ _Emerald is easily damaged, it's hard to find one without cracks and stuff. So it most likely means, Emerald will either be smaller or just weaker. I-I don't really know how this stuff works, but I'm just guessing from what the books told me."_ Connie continued.

"Alright, thanks Connie."

 _"Bye Steven."_ Steven hung up the phone and returned to the group.

"Emerald and Jet." Steven said to the others, "Those were the names, do you guys know anything about them?" The group looked amongst one another, no one knew a thing except Amethyst.

"Jet?" Amethyst muttered, "Ivory mentioned her once." she added.

"What did she say?" Pearl asked immediately.

"She said that Jet was a good friend, and that she got into a lot of trouble." Amethyst answered, Pearl waited for more but there wasn't a lot to talk about.

"She never said anything else?" Pearl repeated.

"Look, I didn't listen to her a lot." Amethyst groaned.

"You don't listen to anyone very much." Pearl sighed, looking at Ivory, she knew there was no way to get answers from her. "If only you were awake..." Pearl bit her lip in anxiety, that watch was still counting down and the idea of two gems coming to take them down, scared everyone. There may have been a lot of them, but if the other Homeworld gems showed up around the same time, there would be a massive amount of trouble, if two wasn't already.

"Pearl." Steven started, "Do you think there's anything I can do?" Pearl thought for a moment, it sounded like he could.

"Ivory's effects in water would mean she'd have absorbed the salt in it… she'd be flaking, her gem would be damaged…!" Pearl grabbed Steven's shoulders. "Steven you're a genius!" Even though there'd be more damage than just that, it would heal her fully so it would solve this.

"I am?"

"She's waterproof though..." Lapis added.

"She is, but not in her gem state. She's extremely vulnerable then!"

"So, I can heal her?!" Steven smiled, holding his hands into fists in an anxious manner.

"Yes, you can heal her!" Pearl said. Steven went over to Ivory and pulled down her collar, licked his hand and placed it on the gem. The gem seemed to glow and the place filled with blinding light. The ring around the jasmine flower made of ivory vanished, and the petals made fuller. It worked. The light faded, and Ivory laid there her eyes open for a second, then shut to sleep.

"It didn't work..." Steven looked as if he wanted to cry.

"No, Steven, it did." Pearl put a hand on his shoulder. "She just needs to rest now, everything is okay." Pearl added.

"You had something prepared for Amethyst and Pearl when they reformed. This should be no different, let's get something prepared for her when she wakes up." Garnet suggested, pushing up her glasses. That's the most she's said in awhile.

"Yes, of course!" Pearl encouraged Steven. "What does she like?"

"Waffles?" Ammolite suggested.

"Swimming?" Lapis said, remembering their race.

"Sleepovers?" Hambergite yawned.

"Dancing." Amethyst remembered, the way she would dance with her, and with the others. Gosh, it seemed like that was one thing she loved doing.

"I think she likes all of those things." Steven added.

"I know she really, _really_ likes you three." Garnet said.

"Who?" Pearl asked.

"You, Steven and Lapis." Garnet smiled, Steven's eyes light up with stars. "She really trusts the three of you." Steven ran over to the phone.

"Connie! We're having a party, get over here if you can!" Steven said.

 _"Wait Steven..."_ Connie started giggling.

"No time! Come over!" Steven hung up, "When she wakes up, we're going swimming, and then we're going to eat waffles, and she can dance with..." Steven looked at Pearl. "Pearl, you should dance with her." Steven said.

"What?!" Pearl chortled, then stopped and covered her mouth. "Steven, I don't just dance for no reason. I dance to teach, or achieve something."

"You'd achieve her happiness!" Steven shouted; Pearl blushed, thinking of Ivory smiling, of how happy she was on that first day, that moment of almost fusing, of being in sync with another.

"I will, if she asks." Pearl crossed her arms, chuckling again.

* * *

Everything was set, and Connie had come over, told to be home before dark or at least call to let them know if she was spending the night. Ivory was still fast asleep, but they had all the ingredients for waffles to make later, and Lapis, Steven and Pearl were sitting by the bed waiting for her to wake up and the others were outside, preparing to throw water balloons at the four inside, unknown to them. Amethyst was looking forward to it, and then they'd play volleyball, and swim and play relay races. Until they got tired, then they'd go inside and have waffles, and once filled up. Pearl would ask Ivory if she wanted to dance, and if she said yes, the two would go to the light house and do just that.

"Steven!" Ivory shot up from her slumber, having the same nightmare from before. "Steven, Lapis, Pearl..." she sighed, thank goodness. She sat up and hugged the three of them. "I'm so glad you guys are okay."

"We're glad you're okay, too." Lapis replied.

"You sounded really worried." Pearl stroked Ivory's hair, in order to calm her.

"Everything's okay now that you're awake!" Steven shouted, "But there's someone out there, who wants you. Someone who is really mean!"

"What?" Ivory moved back, then stood up. "I'll take care of it." Ivory walked outside.

"Wait hang on! You'll need help!" Steven said, Lapis and Pearl moving with hesitance, and Ivory's pace, swift and sure. The four made it outside and the others pegged the group.

"Hey…!" Ivory shouted in dismay.

"What the—!" Pearl flinched as she was soaked. Lapis blinked and said nothing, she was used to water, as for Steven, he knew it was coming so he just laughed.

"Oh, that's it you're going to get it." Ivory looked next to her, there was a bucket full of water balloons, a big one. Ivory picked up several ones and threw two at each person, hitting all of them. "You messed with the wrong gem!" Ivory picked up another, but Connie nailed Ivory.

"Gotcha!" Connie shouted, she had a small bag filled with water balloons.

"I'm going to get you!" Ivory grabbed another few, summoned a satchel and put several balloons inside and ran after Connie.

"Whoa!" Connie started running down the steps, Ivory chasing after her. Steven chuckled, as Amethyst laughed and pegged Steven.

"C'mon, dummy." Amethyst laughed. Pearl pegged Amethyst in the face.

"You're the dummy." Pearl said, giggling as well. The battle continued, for awhile until there were no water balloons left. Then when there were none left, they set up the court and after awhile there was a series of cheating. None of them really cared, then the ball went flat. So they couldn't do that either. Ivory was tired out after that, and said she'd sit, whatever was next, out.

"Breakfast for dinner!" Steven shouted, and lead everyone inside. Three went into the kitchen, Pearl, Connie and Ivory. Making pancakes, waffles and French toast. Each gem had one of each, some having seconds of every dish… or thirds… or fourths… Amethyst didn't stop for awhile. Though there was some hostility in each competitive round if Hambergite was against Ivory, or she would sabotage Ivory's chances if they were on the same team, while Ammolite did the opposite. Garnet didn't have her whole heart in the games, so she wasn't excelling. Something similar was going on with Amethyst, while Lapis, and Steven were behaving as usual. Ivory was a little more aggressive towards everyone, except the three who were by her when she awoke, Pearl was being competitive but definitely lost her edge every so often. Connie noticed the group's strange behavior, and knew something was going on, or something had happened, but no one else was acknowledging it. Everyone ate, except Pearl, then laid down for a little bit. The group moved the TV down by the sofas by the stairs to the loft, and all laid out just realize there was less room down there and moved the TV back up to the loft.

"Ahh… I'm stuffed." Amethyst muttered, patting her stomach in a rhythmic fashion, "So what's on queue today Steven?"

"I have the sixth Lonely Blade movie." Steven held up the copy, "Or, I have this." It was a video tape, it had no label but Pearl could assume that it was Greg's tape.

"What is it?" Amethyst rolled over, she was lying on the bed next to Hambergite, whom Ammolite was sitting on. Steven was going to sit on Garnet's head once he put the movie in, Connie was sitting in Garnet's lap, finishing up a phone call, telling her parents she was spending the night at Steven's and would be home tomorrow morning.

"I dunno, I just asked dad for a movie. And he handed me this." Steven said.

"Let's check it out." Amethyst replied, it caught her curiosity.

"Greg's stuff it is!" Steven said.

"Who's Greg?" Ivory whispered to Pearl.

"Steven's father, he lives in an RV and runs a car wash. I wouldn't bother yourself with him." Pearl replied.

"I'd like to meet him some other time then." Ivory smiled as Steven slipped in the tape and it began to play, it was clearly something he recorded. Steven climbed onto Garnet's head as tape went on.

 _"_ _What's all this?"_ a familiar voice spoke, as the couple onscreen started dancing. Pearl stood up and went to make more popcorn, Steven and Connie had seen this before. Soon, it was clip after clip, of Rose and Greg, it was all their happy moments together. Until the very end, where Steven and Greg were sitting on the van's bumper.

"Whew… Building a house is not easy." Greg said, "How's that ukelele treating ya?" Greg asked, as a baby Steven strummed lightly on the chords.

"Hello, Steven." Pearl walked up to Steven by the van, it looked sturdy but was definitely old and had seen a lot of time. It was such a beautiful day, it was bright out and probably warm like it was a few days ago. Steven had a small band-aid on his face, so he most likely had a small injury to go with it. Pearl was definitely younger, she looked different too. This must've been the regeneration before Ivory met her.

"Oh, hey. Great job out there." Greg pulled out a water bottle from somewhere and handed it to her.

"Uh, thank you. Greg." Pearl replied, handing the water bottle behind her to Amethyst, whom was young as well.

"Aw, yes." Amethyst crushed the bottle while it was still shut so it sprayed on her face, then ate the plastic bottle.

"Did you give Steven that instrument?" Pearl asked, as Garnet approached, she was different too.

"Ah yea, he's picking it up so fast I'm running out of things to teach him." Greg chuckled as the gems sat on the shore, Ivory noticed the absence of Rose and remembered that Steven was her son. "Steven, you want to play them the song you wrote?"

"Um..." Steven blushed and looked away from his father. Ivory looked over at the Steven sitting on Garnet's head next to her, he was blushing too. Connie was looking up at him in a teasing manner.

"Come on. You wrote it for them. Seriously, he's really excited to live with you guys. It's all he ever talks about. Don'tcha want them to hear it?" Greg continued.

"Come on Steven." Garnet encouraged.

"Yea, we'll like it. Even if it's bad!" Amethyst added, with a bit of a mischievous look on her face.

"Amethyst! Well… it is true though." Pearl smiled.

"If you're evil and you're on the rise, you can count on the four of us taking you down." Steven started singing and strumming his ukelele. "Cause we're good and evil never beats us. We'll win the fight, and then go out for pizzas! We… are the Crystal Gems, we'll always save the day." Garnet started clapping and Amethyst, Pearl and Greg joined in. But off screen, the group sitting in front of the television were clapping along as well, Steven singing along with it, and Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl mouthing the lyrics. "And if you think we can't, we'll… always find a way. That's why the people~ of~ this~ world~ believe in…" Steven's eyes light up. "Garnet! Amethyst! And… Pearl! And Steven!" he stopped strumming and stood up. Some other clips consisted of a mob of living watermelons that looked like Steven, and another with a pink Lion, Connie and Steven in a shot holding a giant pink sword fighting some floating robot thing, and another that looked like Steven and Connie fused together, and Steven holding a Kookie Kat and so many different clips that just showed how close this group was. Ivory smiled and looked around the room, wishing she could be part of something like that. Steven leaned over to Ivory, looking over at the kitchen where Pearl was still making popcorn, despite them all saying they didn't need anymore, nor want. She was just staying away, most likely thinking about Rose still.

"Ivory, ask Pearl if she wants to dance later." Steven whispered.

"Huh? Why?" Ivory replied.

"She's embarrassed to ask you, but she's getting dressed up all special. Okay?" Steven said. Ivory nodded and looked back to the screen, he then looked at Connie, and winked. Connie got out of Garnet's lap and went to the kitchen.

"Oh, Connie. Did you want more popcorn?" Pearl asked.

"Oh, no thanks. Ivory was talking and..."

"And?"

"And she really wants to dance with you." Connie looked down, blushing slightly.

"What…?" Pearl's face turned red.

"She plans to get all dressed up and everything, she really hopes to do it tonight." Connie was persuading Pearl and it was working.

"A-Alright, I guess I'll dress up too. I just hope you guys are asleep by then." Pearl sighed, and then smiled, and looked over at everyone.

* * *

Things were already dark, and most were already sleeping. Amethyst was the first to crash, as she did as soon as the clips ended. Garnet was close to the last, once Ammolite and Hambergite fell asleep. Steven and Connie slept separately, as they were different genders and Pearl wouldn't allow it, so Lapis had to sleep between them. Pearl and Ivory were the only ones awake and they had a lot of planning done by that point.

"So..." Ivory started, "Do you, maybe, want to get out of here?"

"The top of the mountain, ten minutes." Pearl burst up from her blankets and exited the beach house, leaving a stunned Ivory behind. Ivory stood up and thought about how she was going to be when she got up there. Ivory sat up, thinking a dozen things in her mind, she was preparing for it all evening, but now that the time had come she was speechless and had no idea what to do. However, Pearl, whom was already waiting at the top of the mountain, was completely prepared to see Ivory. She had thought everything through, she'd meet Ivory here then lead her into the light house, which was hopefully less haunted due to that gem being gone now. Pearl was thinking of something spectacular, something from the 19th century when she was the most popular. Pearl put her hands above her head as puffy sleeves formed over her shirt, shoulder-less, with sweetheart neck line, a corset underneath that gave her some curve along with a light blue sash tied around her waist, but not much and full skirt with a small train at the end. A pattern of yellow stars, with all kinds of stars in different shapes and sizes, at the bottom of the pastel blue dress. It seemed perfect for ballroom dancing which seemed like what Ivory was best at. Pearl also brought out familiar white gloves that went just a two inches past her elbows. She almost looked like that one fairy tale princess, what was her name? Pearl couldn't remember, she just hoped that it be enough for Ivory… Pearl's eyes widened, why did she care of what Ivory thought of her? She wasn't Rose, or Garnet! She's only just met her, it doesn't matter what she thinks…! Pearl looked down the cliff, holding onto the fence. She felt like looking over was just going to make her fall, so she looked up at the sky. Pearl was stunned, it had been so long since…

"P-Pearl?" Ivory's voice broken through Pearl's thoughts as she looked back at Ivory, the two thinking they had gotten dressed up for the other. "Oh, wow. You look great..." Ivory started, "But it doesn't seem like something you wear."

"It's just this once." Pearl blushed and chuckled, looking down at her feet. "You look great, as well." she shuffled awkwardly. Ivory had on a ball room dress just like Pearl. Her sleeves were puffed too, and were almost layered. She had the brown arm guards, but they were almost wristbands at this point, they were getting smaller and smaller, her hair seemed a shade lighter of the pale chestnut, it was almost cream colored, despite it being darker out here. Her hair seemed to be nicely piled together as the curls were more organized, and had a silver head piece with three chains around her head, a white pendeloque shaped gem above her gems. She had a brown choker on with the dark chestnut five pointed star The main pieces was white but the giant bow on the back of the dress was the dark chestnut, same as the back and sides of the torso, while the front and the sleeves and sides were white, and the center of the skirt was cream, but slowly changed into brown as it moved toward the bottom.

"I was trying to come up with something good once I heard you wanted to dance..." Ivory started.

"You came up with this in ten minutes?! I'm impressed." Pearl said.

"N-No… Steven told me you wanted to dance hours ago, but he said you wanted to be alone for it… Sort of."

"I never…! Connie told me that you wanted to!" Pearl shouted, the two stared at each other then started laughing. "Oh… we've been played."

"W-We have." Ivory blushed and looked at Pearl nervously, "So… what do we do now?" Pearl took Ivory's hands delicately, took one hand into hers and put the other hand on her shoulder, Ivory put her free hand on Pearl's waist.

"I guess, we can still do this..." Pearl smiled again, secretly imagining that Ivory was Rose, the two just stepped back and forth, as they were dancing, not fusing. They were having a hard time with the dresses though, having to keep such a distance when these two danced, it was close. They stepped back, and came closer together.

"I-I don't think this is working that well..." Ivory chuckled, making the dress vanish, and turn into a cream night gown, just short sleeves and down to the ankles, barefoot, no jewelry, but the collar and wristbands remained. "Hopefully this is better, and a little less edgy and restricting."

"If you're getting out of it, then so am I!" Pearl chortled again, and covered her mouth, turning into the beach outfit from a few days ago. The two rejoined, getting closer this time, Pearl lying her head on Ivory's shoulder. Pearl thought about Rose and Greg dancing on the tape; and tried to think of something to say.

"Everything's so different..." Ivory muttered first. "I knew that it had been awhile, but this world has changed so fast."

"Things here on Earth change quickly, it's the only thing that for certain." Pearl replied, "Rose said something like that too, oh… you should've seen her Ivory." Pearl stepped back in forth, in rhythm with Ivory. "Rose could change the strangest things into some of the beautiful ones, and you should've seen her dance. She was always so gentle when she held me..." Pearl continued, Ivory listening to every word. Ivory felt a twinge of envy over Rose, she was a saint to Pearl, a close friend, and protector, everything she needed.

"What if you could… have her back, but you had to give everything up?" Ivory asked, Pearl hesitated, anyone who knew Pearl, knew she would give everything up for Rose, but she was thinking about it now.

"I'm… not sure." Pearl replied. "I love Rose, but I'm not sure I'd give up Amethyst and Garnet. They can get on my nerves, but I wouldn't lose them too. I'd just be trading one loss for another..." Pearl admitted, and then stepped back, her hands over her mouth and tears in her eyes, as if she couldn't believe what she just said. "Oh my… If she heard me…! I'm so sorry Rose." Pearl started to cry, and looked down from Ivory.

"Pearl." Ivory cooed, kneeling down to look up at Pearl, taking her hands gently. "I don't think Rose would be upset, I think… she'd be happy."

"You didn't know her like I did!" Pearl grumbled.

"You're right, I don't." Ivory started and scooted closer. "But, I think she'd want you to be happy with the others, with Garnet and Amethyst, and especially Steven. She'd want you to be happy with who you are, even if she's not here." Pearl stopped crying, but she had her eyes shut, Pearl didn't dare look at Ivory right now, after a minute of nothing but sobbing, Ivory spoke up once more. "I can't know for certain, but I am certain she'd want you to be happy."

"Sounds like something Steven would say." Pearl reached up, Ivory stood and pulled Pearl up; The two sighed in synchronization.

"Steven's a smart kid." Ivory replied, looking over the cliff at the edge of the sky. A light peeking over the horizon. "What is that?" Ivory asked.

"Dawn, one of the most beautiful times of the day. I've actually never been out here to see it that often..." Pearl answered, a small beeping went off, it was Ivory's watch. "I've been meaning to ask you about one of the escorts… I know that watch is a countdown for them, what can you tell me about Jet?"

"Absolutely, but I get to really dance with you this time." Ivory agreed, but wanted to dance like they did when they first met. The two stood back and began.

 **24 HOURS REMAIN**


	14. Tomorrow

/ So, the reason why the last two chapter came out, both late and at the same time, is because my wifi went out for an entire week, and why I had an extra chapter was because I was planning on releasing the last two, this one, and the next one within 48 hours, but that didn't work out, and I didn't want to make you guys wait! So, thank you for reading, and putting up with my wifi issues. Here you go.

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Tomorrow**

It wasn't long before Garnet awoke, she was planning to go on a mission, however the others were already awake for a different reason. Amethyst had a camera and had recorded Ivory and Pearl together last night, she had the tape and was playing it.

"Amethyst, turn it off!" Hambergite giggled and stopped the tape.

"What are you guys watching?" Ivory asked, kneeling by them, while Pearl really had no interest in whatever they were watching.

"Just the dance you two did last night..." Connie smiled. "You got all dress up, and you looked really nice and then the last dance you did was amazing... I wish I could dance like that."

"I've you dance before Connie, and your style is much better, and more important." Ivory replied.

"How is it more important?" Connie asked, tilting her head a little.

"Because it's your own, but I could teach you sometime if you really would like to know." Ivory smiled, slightly blushing, she really hoped Pearl wasn't aware of the tape with the two of them on it. She didn't think Pearl liked being video-taped. "For now, let's get cooking! I didn't make a digestive system for nothing!"

"She made a digestive system?" Connie looked at Steven curiously. Steven just shrugged as the two went to the kitchen.

"Oh, wait! Ivory, why don't we go get donuts instead?" Steven suggested.

"Where?" Ivory answered, stopping in her tracks.

"Well, I think it'd be cool for you to meet some of the citizens of Beach City, they are my friends." Steven added. Ivory stood for a moment thinking.

"Alright, but Lapis has to come with us." Ivory pointed at Lapis whom was sitting on a chair, swinging her feet, and eating a sandwich; She really looked happy for once.

"What?" Lapis looked around.

"I want to come!" Ammolite sat up and pulled Hambergite to come with her. "Hambergite wants to as well!"

"Nooooo…." Hambergite had really grown accustomed to sleep, and enjoyed it at this point, and she was still sleeping currently.

"It's a field trip!" Connie announced, then her phone rang. "Dad's outside, bye Steven!" Steven stood up and ran after her.

"H-Hey, I should at least walk you out!" Steven ran out the door. Pearl approached Garnet with the information she got form Ivory last night.

"Ivory told me a lot, apparently Jet and her were very close until her little incident with Jasper. Jet was from kindergarten as well, but she advanced quickly among her superiors, like the diamonds and Jasper." Pearl started explaining, "Apparently, this Jet looks a lot like Rose. Gem placement on the naval, big woman with big hair, and extremely strong. She enjoys taunting and playing with her opponents." Pearl continued. Garnet listening closely.

* * *

Steven, Ivory, Lapis, Hambergite and Ammolite were walking throughout town, the first two to meet is where they were getting breakfast. The Big Donut.

"Yeah, she's my main squeeze..." Lars said to the customer inside.

"Glad to see someone likes you." a buff man sitting, eating a donut said. Steven slammed open the door.

"Lars! Sadie!" Steven's smile widened, "Mr. Smiley!" the two employees were there, but a customer as well.

"Hey Harold." Ammolite greeted Mr. Smiley, he was a bald, dark-skinned man with a mustache, wearing a collared blue shirt with a geometric print of periwinkle circles and bright yellow triangles tucked into dark gray mid-thigh length shorts, light brown-red boots, and a fanny pack with a periwinkle strap.

"Hey, Ammo!" Mr. Smiley greeted.

"Ammo?" Hambergite looked at Ammolite in a questioning manner.

"Oh, great Steven… You brought more of your frea—! Friends!" Lars said, seeing Ivory and Lapis, blushing majorly. "Ivory, h-how are you?"

"Great!" Ivory replied, smiling blissfully. "Where's Sadie?" Unknown to Lars, Ivory actually really liked Sadie but couldn't say much to her.

"Oh, she's behind the counter. But can you introduce me to, uh, your blue friend?" Lars said. Pointing to Lapis. "That one."

"Oh, Lapis?" Ivory said, then whispered to Lapis. "Are you okay talking to someone else?"

"I've met him before." Lapis said, loud enough for Lars to hear.

"R-Really?!" he shouted, catching even Sadie's attention.

"Yeah, it was when I was in a mirror!" Lapis crossed her arms, not exactly fond of that experience. Ivory walked over to Sadie, the short woman looking over the counter at the commotion, which was basically Lars attempting to talk to a bitter Lapis, and Harold and Ammolite talking to each other, trying to get Hambergite involved.

"Five donuts please." Steven said, laying the money on the counter.

"Usual chocolate ones?" Sadie said, "You've been gathering a lot of company. You sure they'll like it?"

"Lapis likes chocolate, I think. Hambergite and Ammolite eat anything that isn't moldy, or looks gross… Ivory, Ivory!" Steven looked up at Ivory, "Will you eat chocolate donuts?"

"Donuts are donuts in my opinion." Ivory chuckled.

"Great! Five donuts." Steven repeated, Ivory looked at the fridges.

"Lion Lickers…?" Ivory opened the fridge, picked one up and looked at it.

"Put that back!" Steven ran over to Ivory, put the item back on the shelf and slammed the fridge's door shut.

"Wh-What's wrong with it?!" Ivory rubbed her hands on her shirt, thinking it might've been toxic.

"They're horrible..." Steven hissed.

"Steven, donuts are ready!" Sadie handed him a small box and the five were off, to eat their donuts.

"Bye Harold!" Ammolite giggled as she left. Lapis waved goodbye to everyone, Hambergite didn't say a single thing, and Ivory ruffled Lar's hair.

"See ya." Ivory smiled, and walked out, as she was the last to leave.

"So… cool..." Lars muttered.

* * *

They eventually passed by Fish Stew Pizza, seeing Ronaldo, Sour Cream, Buck Dewey and… Onion… on the way. For some reason, Ronaldo was really pissed at Ivory, saying they'd met before. Ronaldo is moderately tall, has a thick build, and a tan similar to Steven's. His hair is a dark blond, and resembles curly fries, and wears glasses, as well as an apron, and underneath this, he wears a burgundy collared shirt that he leaves untucked and tan cargo shorts that reach his knees and wears gray wrap around sandals.

"Where do people like you come from?" Ronaldo asked, part of him genuinely curious, but his tone was completely bitter, which wasn't like him. He is a good-natured person.

"Well, I don't know about the others, but I came from Earth." Ivory replied.

"So you're human?" he crossed his arms.

"No… I don't think so. What requires you to be human?" Ivory said, Ronaldo stared at her blankly, as if she didn't know what a human was in the first place.

"Well the six traits of living are being made of cells, obtaining and using energy, growing, reproducing, responding to the environment, and adapting to it, but to be human, would mean you'd have to have a brain that can acknowledge creation, and love and care for it. To be human would to be born with the desire to be happy and love one another, and to be passionate and leads to our behavior." Ivory thought about Pearl, and how Pearl thinks about Rose. "To be human, is to be rational, and have reason, and to make moral choices, to have a conscience." Ronaldo explained.

"Neat." Ivory replied, "I guess I am human."

"No you're not." Hambergite broke in. "To be human, is to age, and go through processes to stay alive, humans are made of cells, not gems, your gems is made of… cells." Hambergite forgot Ivory was organic, "But your form is made of light!"

"Are you guys aliens?!" Ronaldo shouted.

"Yes." Hambergite crossed her arms.

"I totally have to get this for my blog!" Ronaldo messed with his phone, in attempt to get a picture of them all.

"So… you're the new girl Lars was talking about." Sour Cream muttered, one earbud, and another out. Sour Cream is a teenager with pale blonde hair styled into a point, ice blue eyes, and a long, angular face; He is often shown with a concerned facial expression, but he's actually rather "chill." He wears a blue-gray hoodie over a gray-blue undershirt, orange phat pants, and bright sea-foam green tennis shoes. His pants can convert to shorts, an odd but cool function.

"Man, he wasn't lying. Chick is cute." Buck Dewey spoke up, only loud enough for Sour Cream to hear. Buck is a teenager with dark brown eyes, covered by a pair of shades at this point, dark brown hair, and brown-coral skin. He wears an overly large red button-up shirt with unbuttoned cuffs, a white shirt with a yellow lightning bolt design, dark blue slim-fit jeans, and cyan and blue sneakers with white soles.

"I guess." Ivory shrugged.

"Is it true that you're his girlfriend?" Buck chuckled, but just the one chuckle. It made him look kind of smug.

"Huh? I think you mean Sadie, not me." Ivory blinked hastily.

"Nah, he said new girl with rad hair and a cool style." Buck smirked, "What's your name?"

"Ivory." she answered.

"Like, elephants?" Sour Cream started.

"Y-Yea..."

"Man, that ain't cool. Well, the name's cool, but poaching..." Buck looked away, "It ain't right."

"Thanks…?" Ivory said, as a little boy ran up to Ivory and pulled on her wrists, hard. "H-Hey…! Oh, hi." Ivory looked down at Onion, Onion is a fair-skinned boy with a small tuft of blonde hair and a chubby face. He wears a white sweater, a periwinkle shirt tied around his neck, and pale red footie pants. His most recognizable trait is his onion-like head. He also does not have any visible ears. Steven doesn't really believe Onion is human, no one really knows because he doesn't speak. He waved his hand, almost saying: "Gimme." Ivory looked at him in a confused manner. "What?" he waved his hand again. Ivory took off her arm guards, or wristbands at this point, and handed them to him. He took them, ripped them up and threw them on the ground, and ran away. They vanished into clouds right after.

"Uhh..." Sour Cream moaned, "That's Onion, he's my little half-step-brother."

"He's a good kid." Buck added.

"You guys come for something?" Kiki leaned over the counter. Buck rest against the counter, not looking at Kiki. Kiki has dark eyes and curly, dark brown hair. She wears a white apron, light cyan shirt, dark gray leggings with light gray cuffs, and black shoes. She keeps her hair worn back in a beige cap to protect it.

"Kiki, is Jenny available?" Buck asked.

"Yeah, she'll be out in a sec." Kiki replied, then looked at Ivory and the others. "Oh my gosh, I love your hair." she said to Ammolite.

"Oh, thanks!" Ammolite blushed, the bright silver rising to the surface of her cheeks. Hambergite put a protective arm around Ammolite.

"Mine..." Hambergite muttered.

"Hey, is Kofi or Nanefua here?" Steven peeked his head over the counter.

"Kofi is, Nanefua resting for now though." Kiki replied. "Well, Kiki, this is Lapis, Ivory, Ammolite and Hambergite."

"H-Hi." Ivory greeted nervously.

"Hi, again." Ammolite smiled politely.

"Hey." Hambergite looked away from them all.

"Hello! You're Kiki, right?" Lapis greeted eagerly.

"Yes." Kiki nodded. "Would you like to order something?"

"No, just… say hi." Lapis said, she wasn't usually like this. Lapis was almost always composed, and being shy and eager wasn't exactly a sign of that. Jenny came out from the back, throwing her apron off and coming over the counter.

"I'm here guys." Jenny announced, She has brown skin and wears her hair in a puffy bob hairstyle, she also wears large gold earrings, a pale cream-colored shirt, a dark brown leather jacket with a beige fur-trimmed collar, lavender shorts, and mint-colored flats. It was obvious Kiki and Jenny were twin sisters. "Who's the new crew?" Steven giggled.

"That rhymed..." Steven chuckled.

"Hey Steven, these guys with you?" Jenny asked.

"Yeah, they're all with me. That's Lapis, that's Ivory, that's Hambergite, and that's Ammolite." Steven pointed to each person as he said their name. "They're living with me for right now."

"You sure know a lot of girls." Jenny replied, "Well, we'll see you later Steven."

"Bye!" Steven waved, and steadily, each gem did the same.

* * *

The gems were back in the Temple, and at this point, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl hadn't arrived yet. It was starting to get dark out… Ivory couldn't help but feel a twinge of worry. Steven reassured her everything was fine. Hambergite, Ammolite and Lapis were talking about everyone they had met today, and Ivory put in a _few_ words, when she was asked her opinion. She couldn't help but be worried about them.

 **12 HOURS REMAIN**


	15. Hostile

/And, hiatus. I'm going to have to work on another story, and make it better. I'll attempt to put some time into this, but I do have a lot of work to do now. Thank you, so much for reading! Reviews are appreciated, and will have a public or private response.

Some Details: Vesuvianite has four different forms, Californite, and as the name sounds, comes from California and is always a green color; the second is Wiliute which comes from the former USSR and is green as well, what makes them different is unknown to me; the third is xanthite which is yellowish-green color and found in New York; and finally, the last form is Cyprine, not to be confused with the urdban dictionary term, cyprine is found in Norway and is the only one with a name that's NOT green. Cyprine is blue, usually a light blue and comes in small amounts unless infused with rock. Vesuvianite also comes in a variety of different colors, including purple, red, yellow, or brown.

It a Calcium Aluminum Silicon, and while calcium tends to be popular among certain gems like Aragonite, and a majority of organic gems including ivory and pearl, it does not have a lot of calcium silicons to match this detail. Labradorite, is the only excuse but also includes sodium. For anyone who's reading this, you really didn't have to. Onto the chapter!

 **Chapter 14: Hostile**

It wasn't long before the first sign of trouble came, but it wasn't something any of the gem expected. Hambergite and Steven were completely unconscious when it happened, but that wasn't too surprising as it was almost one in the morning, and Lapis was day-dreaming. Ammolite was watching television, but Ivory was outside, worried sick about the Crystal Gems, while Steven had no worries about them.

"Crystal Gems! I challenge you!" a voice called from inside. Hambergite sat up hastily, it was the television taunting them. Ivory ran inside, the warp pad light up. A series of figures, all the same size and shape. All tiny, all with their arms crossed.

"Who… are you guys?" Ammolite asked, as the five figures lined up.

"We..."

"Are..."

"The..."

"Vesuvian..."

"Force!" Each member announced, getting into some type of position, as to prepare for a group photo. One was purple, another was light blue, two were green, one lighter another darker, and the last one a yellow, with tints of green for their skin.

"Californite!" one shouted, this one was a light green, moss colored skin, and short grass green hair, a small tuft of her sticking up at the top of her head, with celery-colored eyes, gem and mini short-sleeved jacket. There was a mint green band around her chest, over her gem, but was completely visible, but to hide one's gem was almost shameful to them, and skirt that just barely reached the band. She seemed like she was analyzing the place, her face turned to a smug expression that ticked Hambergite off.

"Xanthite!" another one said, with almost the same outfit but different colors, that could go for the entire group, as if they were all in uniform. She had gold skin, with a slight tone of light green, a custard band and skirt, an orange gem, mini jacket and eyes and yellow hair. She seems almost, bored with them all, sarcastic and annoyed with the group she was with… kind of sounded like someone else is the house.

"Wiluite!" this one was the other green one, her hair was a basic green, while her gem, mini-jacket and eyes were a forest green, her skin a light olive color and her band and skirt were chartreuse. This one had her eyes on Lapis, then Ammolite, then Steven, then Hambergite, then Ivory. She then looked outside and lost focus on everything and didn't care about the mission.

"C-Cy… Cyprine!" the fourth spoke up, she had a bit of stutter. Her skin was a teal color, and her hair was sky blue, her eyes, gem and mini-jacket were indigo, and her band and skirt was an arctic blue. There were multiple vibes coming from her, anxious, shy, and not very sure of herself. Rather than her enemies, or challengers, she was looking at her team mates. She made small adjustments, as her smile, her footing, how clench her hands were, and the sort to look more threatening. However, it did just the opposite affect.

"Well done, girls." the purple one clapped. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am… Vesuvianite!" She had eggplant colored skin, and mulberry hair, a violet gem, eye and mini-jacket and her band and skirt a heather-purple. She appeared to be the leader of the group, and the most smug of them all.

"Aren't the five of you just different forms of Vesuvianite?" Ammolite crossed her arms, she wasn't impressed at all.

"They are." Hambergite confirmed.

"Oh, you." Vesuvianite crossed her arms, "The reject director, what are you doing here?" she said.

"It doesn't matter why she's here." Ivory spoke up, "You need to get out of here." Ivory was pissed now, she was worried, now she was sick of other Homeworld gems showing up.

"Aw, how cute..." Vesuvianite started, "She thinks she can just..." Ivory sprinted to Vesuvianite, and pounded her knee in Vesuvianite's face.

"Get. Out." Ivory growled. "No bull, no games. Nothing, get out." Ivory picked up the five of them, went through the warp and ended up by Seychelles and tossed them all out. "Don't make me do that again." And warped right back.

* * *

Hours started pass, it was almost midnight, and the others hadn't returned yet. And that little encounter with the Vesuvian Force wasn't making Ivory feel any less worried. Hours continued to pass, nothing happened. No one arrived, no one moved. Just steady breaths from the ones sleeping, or an occasional heavy sigh from Ivory. Where were they? Time was almost up! Ivory checked her watch one last time, 167 hours, 34 minutes, and six seconds, there was less than one hour left until they arrived. It wouldn't take long to get here. Oh, god where were they?

"Guys, I'm freaking out." Ivory admitted.

"They're almost here, aren't they?" Lapis asked, Ivory nodded reluctantly.

"We'll have to face them." Hambergite woke up, hearing the two's short conversation. "Those other gems aren't here and I'm not going to just be taken back by one of those stupid diamonds!" Hambergite sat up quickly.

"It's not a good idea, we don't have our biggest gun." Ivory replied.

"Garnet couldn't handle the betas, she can't handle two omegas." Hambergite said, Ivory cringed in anger.

"I'm going to look for them." Ivory walked over to the warp pad, she knew they had to be around somewhere. They wouldn't have, and couldn't be, off planet. So where could they be?

 **NOW ENTERING ORBIT**


	16. The Arrival

****Chapter 15: The Arrival****

It appeared in the sky, it was clear and easy to see, the four were on the beach, watching it come, closer and closer. Hambergite and Ammolite helped Steven with the light cannons and Lapis tried to use the tides to build up, hoping it would block the oncoming escorts, but they weren't close enough yet. Steven said the cue: "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs." The light cannons light up, but just like last time, there was no effect. They would have to wait until they landed, would the city need to evacuate like last time? Hambergite and Ammolite looked at each other.

"It's forbidden." Ammolite started.

"It's necessary." Hambergite replied. They nodded, standing face to face before starting to dance in the sand. The two moved past each other, but used their hands to grab onto one another's wrist to keep them within a fair distance. One foot, touching the partner's, and the other leg forward, with their knee bent ninety degrees. Then moved back and looked at each other for two seconds before Hambergite kicked Ammolite's head, or would've if Ammolite hadn't ducked and rolled behind Hambergite. The two joined hands again and spun around in a circle once more, leaning in for a moment, only an inch apart. Hambergite slashed her arms horizontally, which Ammolite proceeded to dodge again. The two leaned, Ammolite to her left, and Hambergite to her right, which made them lean in the same direction. Hambergite did a cartwheel but boosted herself off the ground, as if air was on her side, they did this not once, but twice. Ammolite spun, swinging her arm out, almost hitting Hambergite, her partner moving her arm up and over to do another cartwheel, but not another boost. The sand flew as Ammolite continued to spin, making the plaid skirt fly marvelously. Hambergite adjusted his cartwheel to turn, as Ammolite did the same to face each other again. They turned away from one another and spun in a semi-circle, and jumped high this time, doing a flip. The two met right against each other, Ammolite in front of Hambergite, as she outstretched an arm for Ammolite to fall back on. The two smiled as they light up. The gem on the two were revealed, though Hambergite's was seen easily, Ammolite's was well hidden, until now.

* * *

Ivory ran around the shores of Seychelles, the nation was small, but as an island, it was large. They could've been anywhere, they might not have been there at all. Ivory needed another angle; so she jumped up, high enough to see the entire island, nothing at an instant.

"Nothing." there was movement, but there were humans here, it wasn't just deserted. A spear thrown at extreme speed was aimed at her throat. She revealed her location, did one of the Homeworld Gems have a spear? Did they replicate Pearl?! Ivory landed on the white sand beach roughly, practically throwing herself onto the shore.

"You!" Pearl shouted at Ivory. "You shouldn't have revealed your location." Pearl chuckled, "Now… Now I have you!" Pearl laughed.

"What?" Ivory's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Where have you been all night? _I've_ been searching for you, Jet and Emerald are going to arrive any minute!" Ivory replied.

"Don't change the subject! I have you, prepare yourself, you cheap replica!" Pearl said and slashed toward Ivory, Ivory backed up quickly and stepped into the water. She couldn't summon her weapon now! She did it before! Why couldn't she do it now?!

"Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!" Ivory half-whispered, half-screamed as she moved back each step. "Pearl, listen to me! I am not a replica! Name something only I would know! Something _you_ would know!" Pearl put the spear to Ivory throat, if Pearl moved the spear forward with enough force, the jasmine flower on the back of her neck would be destroyed.

"I don't trust you..." Pearl said, looking behind her, Ivory kept her eyes on Pearl. "Who was the first to greet you when you entered the temple?" Ivory froze, she forgot! Everyone just shouted their names at one another. Ivory closed her eyes shut, painfully trying to remember.

"Amethyst, she was the first to recognize me, but you spoke after her." Ivory said, she couldn't remember but, that's as far as she could go.

"Have we _ever_ fused?" Pearl asked, putting the spear against her throat more firmly.

"No, we were close once, but… it didn't work." Ivory replied quickly, she wouldn't forget that.

"Your gloves… why do you wear them?" Pearl continued, lowering her guard for a moment but earning her aggressiveness within seconds.

"Jasper, m-made me kneel..." Ivory started, it was still hard for her to talk about, "And bow in a fumarole."

"Why did Lapis stay with us, despite not trusting the Crystal Gems?" Pearl asked.

"I convinced her, she wanted to see Steven..." Ivory thought about Lapis, they were all on their own right now! "Please we have to go!"

"No, I have more questions!" Pearl pushed Ivory down onto the sand and hunched over Ivory keeping her spear still aimed at her. "Who won the race on the beach?" Pearl continued.

"You did."

"Who fought Diopside and Gilson Garnet?"

"Garnet did, but she couldn't fight herself, so I had to help around." Ivory replied, when was this going to end?! "We need to…!"

"Who was taken captive after Diopside escaped?"

"Garnet went with them in attempt to take them down stealthily, Ammolite was taken later on and I went to help her." Ivory spoke much faster, they were running out of time!

"What island were you on?"

"Seychelles, this island!"

"Who claims to be your boyfriend?"

"The guy at the Big Donut… Lars!" She paused while trying to remember his name.

"Who interrogated Phosphophyllite, Ammolite and Hambergite?"

"Connie for the most part!" Ivory said, her heart beating rapidly. Pearl moved the spear back, and helped Ivory back. "We're wasting time, we need to find the others, where are they?"

"Pearl!" Amethyst's voice called out, the short gem came from the trees. "Have you found Garnet?!"

"No… I thought this was a replica of Ivory, but this is the original. She said _they_ are going to be arriving soon." Pearl explained briefly.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on?" Ivory asked, obviously eager for some answers. _Garnet's been taken. They all just piled up on her, not holding back at all…_ The mental images appeared in Ivory's mind… she had to retreat into her gem. _They're going to be there, all of them. They plan on getting rid of the planet, after they get rid of us._ Ivory looked down, she was afraid it'd end up this way.

* * *

When the three returned they were just as shocked, two were missing and a new gem appeared. Hambergite's and Ammolite's fusion… Labradorite. The gem stood tall, at least 10 feet tall, maybe 11. Her hair wild and crazy, a beautiful azure blue, changing to green toward the tips, three sets of arms and gem a little below the heart, and two other gems on the heels. This was a fusion of three! This fusion wore a giant dark teal cape and some type of iridescent jumpsuit and boots. Like a superhero of some kind. She looked at the three arriving, they were out of time… Jet and Emerald landed. Diopside, Peridot, and Jasper all appeared at the same time. Garnet was separated again, and placed on Diopside's scythe, along with several gems that seemed familiar…

"The Vesuvian Force!" Ivory stared in shock, "You took them out to make your weapon stronger?!" Ivory grew enraged.

"Haven't seen you in forever Cuz." the bigger gem said, looking at Ivory.

"This is..." Pearl muttered, looking at Jet, did Jet look like that all the time or did she shape shift like this intimidate them? A giant woman on about eight feet, narrow golden eyes, big dark gray, long curly hair, a black dress with layers getting darker with each layer, a diamond on her naval with her gem in the diamond… She looked like Rose Quartz.

"Get out of here Jet." Ivory replied, "This isn't a Homeworld controlled planet, you need to leave, or else..."

"Or else what sweetie?" Jet walked straight up to Ivory and held her chin sweetly. "You couldn't stick a pig if you wanted to, nevertheless another gem."

"You haven't seen me in 6,000 years, and you think I haven't changed?" Ivory snacked her hand away, "Allow me to introduce myself." Jet crossed her arms. "My name is Ivory, I am 6,238 years old in human years, I am an organic gem and I'm going to shatter you so badly that Yellow Diamond is going to feel it." Ivory said.

"You've gotten cheeky, no matter. I guess I'll play with you for a bit." Jet cracked her knuckles, then nodded for Emerald. "Take care of the runts why don't you? And you three, don't just stand there. Do the same." Emerald was probably another beautiful gem. Slender, beautiful facial structure, lime fair skin, thin mint-colored lips, long wavy dark green hair, pale green eyes, a mint green gown with a dark green ribbon tied around her waist, just below her breasts, and a transparent lime green shawl, off her shoulders. Emerald spun her hand in a circle several time, small sparkles forming around her wrists. Labradorite summoned her weapon, seeming to be a sword pistol, a giant one at that, as if it would obliterate everything within a mile. Ivory attempted to summon her weapon, but she couldn't again! Jet headbutted her, making the first move compared to everyone else.

"Hey!" Connie shouted. Steven looked over at her in shock.

"Connie, you shouldn't be here!" Steven warned her.

"You're going to need help." Connie said, holding Rose's sword. "Besides, I think we're stronger together." Connie added, Steven nodded. There was no point in asking her to leave now, she was a very determined girl.

"You should stay close." Steven said, "Has everyone evacuated… again?" Connie nodded. The two stood together, Steven held up his arm so whenever their enemy planned to attack, he'd be ready. Amethyst and Pearl stayed close together, though there was six of them, and only five on the others, they felt horribly outmatched. Until…

"Don't start without me." the replica Ivory said, she had arrived. "I need to accomplish something today, other than beating the crap out the two employees at that dumb donut shop." This caught all of the Crystal Gems' attention, a Homeworld gem used their powers on humans. Ivory thought about Lars and Sadie being hurt and it both brought concern and anger. The gem on her neck light up, could she summon her weapon through worry or rage? How did she summon it last time?

 _"What did you call her?"_ the words rung in her head, she was filled with fury at the time.

"My Pearl..." Ivory muttered, thinking about her broken leg, and before she reformed, and when she was called a parasite, and crying over Rose. Ivory had never felt so hopeless and angry and sad, like a cornered animal. The enemy spread out, and each of them had a target already. Ivory held her head painfully, and thought harder. How Pearl was in pain, she thought about Amethyst being hurt, or Steven, or Ammolite and Hambergite and Lapis! That dream...! They were all gone, and she didn't do anything to stop it, even Steven had gotten caught and everything good for this planet was undone. Labradorite fought with Jasper and Diopside, Pearl fought Peridot, Steven and Connie fought Emerald, while Amethyst fought the replica Ivory. Ivory summoned her weapon out of rage and held her sai up to her eyes, keeping her hands up at the level of her eyes.

"So you like the other organic?" Jet said, she looked over at Diopside. "Oi, Dio, get into the temple and free your comrades." she ordered. Labradorite went to block the gems way, but Jasper grasped the giant and flew her into the mountain. Diopside made her way to the temple, Ivory ran to stop her but Jet blocked her way now. Ivory plunged the sai into Jet's side. Jet chuckled at her, the sai broke. "You can't do anything." Jet reminded her, "You blade is too soft to pierce me." Ivory was trying to come up with a plan, she'd need a plan… If she were to face her, she'd have to be a fusion, something stronger than both Jet and herself, because Jet couldn't take her on either. They're equals, like Ivory is Pearl. Maybe if she fused with Lapis, whom was staying out of this fight and standing back unless she was really needed. Ivory thought about Chrysocolla, but she wasn't stronger, she was only faster than Jasper. She wouldn't stand a chance against Jet… Who could fuse with her to become strong enough? Ivory looked at Pearl, fighting with Peridot, she's a 30271, right? She'd be strong enough, but with Ivory being 25190, that might make Pearl weaker. Ivory thought about Amethyst, she wouldn't be willing to after what happened all those years ago. "You're thinking about fusing aren't you?" Jet started.

"Piss off." Ivory punched Jet as hard as she could, Jet grabbed Ivory's arm and had her face away from Jet.

"Oh, come on… Why don't we become Neptunite like you wanted to all those years ago? Isn't that the reason you used Amethyst for fusion a long time ago, even when it was shunned?" Jet cooed, "Is that the only reason you want to fuse? To _feel_ strong again?" Ivory struggled against Jet's grip, she was still too weak to be free from her. Pearl watched from afar, thinking if that was actually Rose. How dare that woman even look like her? Pearl smacked Peridot with an intense amount of force, then ran to Ivory, cutting Jet's arm and snagging Ivory away from her. Amethyst heard Jet as well, she lost it. She knew that Ivory did that, but it was more than just that, they had to defend themselves from Rose… whom Ivory knew. Amethyst was stronger though now, she'd be more than good enough! She's stronger than Pearl, she's stronger than Ivory.

"Ivory!" Amethyst called over in an angry tone, "Fusion, now!" Amethyst ran after snatching the replica Ivory and threw her into the side of the temple. "Pearl, take care of those two real quick. I have something to talk about with Ivory."

"Amethyst! Right now?!" Pearl shouted.

"Yes!" Amethyst shouted louder, Pearl groaned and did as she asked. "Ivory, we're fusing right now!" Ivory started to defy Amethyst's efforts, but Amethyst's look changed her response.

"Let's go." Ivory replied, Steven held back Emerald back by keeping himself and Connie in a bubble while Emerald attempted to break through. The two were separated evenly, their feet facing each other, one point towards each other, and the other foot facing forward to hold a steady stance. Their gems light up, as they both knew what they were doing this time. Amethyst arched her back, holding herself straight to hunching over, popping her chest while rolling her shoulders. She moved her hips, when Ivory moved she revealed her true form in dance. She loved spinning, and moving quickly, she drew her feet through the sand kicking some to face away from Amethyst. She moved her hands swiftly from side to side, up above her head, down and looked over to Amethyst and moved her hips sync with her hands, cueing Amethyst to dance.

Amethyst flipped her hair up, throwing her hands up as if to signal some type of surrender than dropped her hands down, moving her hips with level then spun and placed her hands on her lower back and faced each other, mirroring each one's movements. They moved their hands up and around, one leg up as the other spun and when the other foot landed. They kicked their right foot forward and lowered themselves with each kick, and then back up again. Moving their hands from side to side in the opposite direction of their hips and kicks. They pushed their feet back twice, then kicked out, straight forward with their arms crossed then slashed out as they turned to land on the kicked out foot. They outstretched an arm and spun with such speed and force. Then suddenly stopped and pushed out, then repeated in the opposite direction.

They slammed their hands onto their lower backs, they'd done this before, many times before, it was obvious. Ivory jumped into the air, spinning with her hair going wild, whereas Amethyst had a more mild spin which seemed odd for her. They landed facing each other, their wrists just barely touching. Amethyst turned completely to pull Ivory down, and lean her back. The two light up and merged into each other as their gems lined up. A set of four eyes, narrow and glaring at Jet, no irises, just glowing white eyes, staring at the Homeworld gem. A long bunch of curly hair fell down to the back of her knees, pale cream, resembled both Amethyst and Ivory. The skin was almost like the essence of light itself, but something clouded it. Their gems changed color, Ivory's was a more transparent white while Amethyst's gem just became a solid white, it remained her quartz however. Snowy Quartz, a tall gem with off-white hair and no irises on her eyes, just the sclera. Her face was serious, and sure of her movements, she was elegant, the long hair moved with the tiny sand storm by her feet, she stared down at Jet.

"Guess playtime's over." Jet muttered, "Emerald, fusion!" the girl back away from Steven and Connie, and spun toward Jet. Peridot and Pearl stopped fighting, Steven and Connie looked at Labradorite and Jasper, they stopped and looked over at them too. Diopside paid no attention to them she looking at something in the far distance.

"We're going to need a bigger fusion." Diopside said. The Earth shook and the tides rose steadily, as if something emerged from the sea. "Jasper!

"What do you want?!" Jasper shouted and slammed her fist down into the sand. "I'm busy!"  
"We need to get out of here, the Cluster is…!"

"The Cluster is…!"

"The Cluster?!" Peridot screeched, "I-If it's emerging..." Peridot looked off, but couldn't see what Diopside was seeing. "It isn't as big as expected..."

"It's taken a full bodied gem form." Peridot's shriek caught the attention of Labradorite, Steven and Connie, while Pearl ignored them to watch Jet and Emerald fuse. Jet and Emerald ignored the water by their feet and moved gracefully. Pearl didn't look away despite the flooding slowly leading up to the steps by the beach house. Jet danced like Rose too… They were so graceful and beautiful together it was like they were one person already, it was hard to look away for her. Pearl hummed a light tune, she imagined Rose Quartz by her side, and how great it felt to be them, to be Rainbow Quartz, to be with her… she wished she could be in her arms, just one more time…

"Pearl!" Stevonnie shouted, Steven and Connie had fused, Connie knew this was going to be tough and even more so, risky. "We need to do something right now!"

"We need Garnet!" Pearl immediately replied, "She makes us stronger!"

"We need to act now!" Stevonnie retorted, Snowy Quartz watched Jet and Emerald's fusion arise, leaving those two the last one's to notice. They turned to the image of the Cluster, no longer focused on one another.

"Cluster, now. Jet, later." Snow spoke to herself, "Oi!" the Quartz called everyone to attention, "We need to take that thing out!"

"No! _We_ have to leave. You can stay here, you clods!" Peridot screamed. The fusion summoned Amethyst's whip, looked at the Homeworld ship and slashed off the engine.

"You can fix it, but you'll need more time than you have. Now help or you'll be shattered." the fusion was not taking any sass this time.

"You…!" Peridot growled. Pearl sneaked up on Diopside and stole her scythe and removed several gems from it, a lot of gems from it. The first two were definitely Sapphire and Ruby, whom regenerated quickly and found their partners. Then Lapis, whom regenerated fast like Sapphire and Ruby, whom returned with a sash around her waist, a lot like Pearl, almost blocking her gem. As if Diopside attempted to break her gem. The five gems of the Vesuvian Force regenerated slowly, but in sync. Then there was one last final gem, a round gem, a ball almost. When this gem regenerated, it was a familiar gem, but not a familiar face.

"Hey, that's the centipeedle's gem!" Steven recognized the gem.

"Jade! My name is Jade!" the gem shouted.

"Well, Jade, your returned at one of the worst times..." Pearl replied, the gem caught a glance of the unholy plethora of gem shards, that was known as the cluster.

"What the heck is that?!" she shouted, there was a scarf around her throat unlike before, she was attacked. "What about the war?! Is this something Homeworld created?!"

"Technically speaking, yes." Peridot answered, crossing her arms and holding her head up high. "The Cluster was once created by… nevermind, it's none of _your_ business." she stopped, realizing Jade was once part of the rebellion.

"What are you going on about?!" Jade snapped, she had quite a temper.

"What do you think you rebellious clod?!" Peridot stiffened, the two argued in small phrases until Pearl lost before Garnet or Diopside could.

"Be quiet!" Pearl groaned with frustration.

"We need a plan of attack…" Garnet started, Ruby and Sapphire had a tendency to instantly fuse but it made things easier, in battle that is. "Everybody needs to fuse."

"Fusion?!" Peridot screeched. "That's… horrible!"

"You're telling _me…_?" Lapis muttered, keeping her eyes far away from Jasper.

"Listen here, you little brat…!" Jasper grabbed her arm, Lapis lifted her other one, commanding the waves to form the massive hand from before.

"Don't touch her!" Snow broke in, this was the Ivory side speaking. Ivory felt Lapis was her responsibility and blessing, if she got hurt—even if during fusion—she wouldn't be able to forgive herself. However Garnet's plan had Pearl thinking already.

"How can we possibly fuse everyone together?! It'll be a mess, like Alexandrite all over again!" Pearl said.

"What?" Lapis turned to Steven for answers, her hostility vanished and only brought confusion.

"Long story..." Stevonnie chuckled awkwardly.

"Let's get in pairs." Garnet started, then some kind of chain shot down onto the shore. "Lapis! Jasper! Stay away form each other!"

"Don't order me around!" Jasper retorted, Lapis sighed with relief, "You won't have to worry about that though…." Jasper muttered under her breath.

"Peridot! Stay out of this! You can't fuse or summon a weapon, or defend yourself, hide somewhere!" Garnet ordered.

"On it!" Peridot ran toward the rocks, screaming as another chain slashed onto the beach, making sand fly everywhere.

"Vesuvianite!" Garnet started, "Fuse with all the members of your team." There were retorts at first, but as the Cluster moved, they were silenced.

"Californite!" Californite spun into Wiliute.

"Xanthite!" Xanthite spun into Cyprine.

"Vesuvian Fore! Combine!" Vesuvianite demanded. The couples light up and turned into two beings rather than four. "Combine!" Wiluite spun to Cyprine and combined once more, leaving Vesuvianite and Cyprine. "Combine!" Cyprine spun to Vesuvianite and combined into one being. There appeared to be no changes, except Vesuvianite seemed to look depressed; her team was gone and she was alone. She looked up at Garnet with mixed emotions, "Now, what?"

"Fuse with… whatever Jet and Emerald are." Garnet said.

"Verdite!" the fusion sound, the voice was soft but at peace, so strange for what they appeared to be. "It's Verdite!"

"Whatever. Amethyst, Ivory. Fuse with Ammolite and Hambergite." Garnet said, there was going to be chaos on the beach. The large woman looked to the other fusion, Labradorite on all fours. Labradorite stood up properly, and took Snow's hands, two giant women dancing together. Then another giant woman dancing with a tiny gem. Jasper looked at Vesuvianite pathetically, and actually felt sympathy for once, and walked over.

"If you're going to do, then do it right." Jasper growled and took Vesuvianite's hands, "You're too small as you are for this to work. The only way for you to get bigger is to fuse with me first." Jasper explained. Vesuvianite looked up at Jasper in awe, her eyes huge filled with diamonds. Jasper flustered, "Stop looking at me like that!" Vesuvianite looked down quickly, extremely embarrassed. They were both left very curious about each other.

"What should I do?" Jade wanted to be involved already, she didn't want to be updated, she wanted to take care of business. Before, when she ran, she felt like a coward. Now, she had to act like a gem, real gem.

"Lapis, are you willing to fuse with Jade?" Garnet asked.

"She hasn't given me a reason _not_ to trust her." Lapis answered, crossing her arms in a bit of an insecure fashion. Their eyes connected for a second, one was determined and the other was thinking.

"That is your mission Jade, fuse with Lapis, and then await instructions." Garnet continued, Jade nodded and went to greet Lapis.

"So… You're not a Homeworld gem, are you?" Jade rubbed the back of her neck.

"Not anymore." Lapis answered, the two began a bit of small talk, with simple questions and laconic answers.

"Pearl." Garnet thought for a second, hesitating, and held her hand out to her partner. "You and me." Pearl thought for a second, this was happening rather fast and ever since the incident at the Communication Hub, there had been a lot of awkward exchanges, and even still after Peridot's attempt at trapping them. Garnet said as Pearl landed a few feet apart. Lapis and Jade got to know each quickly, talking fast and then getting in their positions.

"Geez that thing is slow…" Stevonnie said. "Wait, should I fuse with anyone?"

"Better if you don't this time Stevonnie." Garnet replied, "We don't know if you can fuse with a gem nevertheless have a fusion of yourself fusing with another gem. For all we know, it could cause catastrophic damage to Connie, the gem you fuse with, and you."

"Okay." Stevonnie nodded and thought for a little bit as the chains almost came down onto her. She sliced through it with Rose's sword and something came to mind. "Wait! Is there a way to unfuse the gem shards?!"

"Yes!" Peridot screamed over, "but the only way to do that is to use a diamond shard, which are only available on Homeworld!"

"Except Rose was considered a diamond, will her gem shards count?" Snow asked.

"I'm…. not sure." Peridot replied. "We could try it."

"No!" Garnet broke in, "That would require shattering Steven and healing him, we don't even know if he can regenerate proper as Steven!" Garnet was losing her cool and delaying her fusion with Pearl. "He could regenerate as Rose! Or possibly not at all!"

"Nevermind then, let's just trap and bubble these guys!" Stevonnie shouted as the Cluster dropped down its chain, one more time.

"Garnet." Snow caught the woman's attention. "This is your plan, what Is the next phase?" The voice was mostly Amethyst's at this point, as if Ivory was being quiet and observing.

"Fusing, again." Garnet answered. Jasper paid no attention to them, she focused on Vesuvianite. The tiny gem had such gentle movements but turned erratic at some points,she spun in circles wither her hands above her head, and into Jasper's arms. Jasper held Vesuvianite's lower back as she leaned behind her. Jasper had her other hand by Vesuvianite's leg, leaning her back more, yet having more control. They spun once more, Jasper then pulled Vesuvianite u to her feet. Vesuvianite smiled, the pressed her nose against Jasper's. The look of shock on Jasper's face vanished as the light of fusion blurred it all out.

Garnet looked at Diopside, whom stood doing nothing. "Diopside, get Taaffeite and Phosphophyllite from out of the temple! Diopside didn't move, "Go!" Garnet ordered, she didn't trust Diopside at all, the temple was a sacred and dangerous place and Diopside had even broken in before. Diopside slowly, but surely moved.

"She'll need someone to go with, and to open it." Snwo said, "We'll go." Snow added, walking toward the temple and opening the beach house door, and hesitantly let Diopside inside. One wrong move, and it was all over. After a few minutes, Diopside came out with Taaffeite and Phosphophyllite, they had been updated on the current situation. By then Garnet and Pearl had already finished their dance, Sardonyx was awaiting with the new fusion of Jasper and Vesuvianite, Thorite.

Thorite was a tall muscular gem with quite a figure similar to Garnet's, with two sets of arms and walked as if gravity did not apply to her, but she lost no strength as seen because she was already fighting with Verdite against the Cluster. She clearly had a kind of two tone to her, brown and green color's. Thorite had two sets of eyes, a large pair of purple eyes and a smaller pair of gold ones. Thorite. Homeworld's experiments didn't go over properly and the millions of gem shards hadn't been connected properly which created a large amount of gem mutants, and one large gem with a solid gem form, which was the one throwing down the chain earlier. It's hair covered it's face but when it moved, its hair fell back to see a set of six eyes created from smaller eyes, no mouth, no nose. Just eyes. It lead the gem mutants as if it were a superior gem, and they all knew it.

Snowy Quartz and Labradorite fused together and created Condor Agate. It's appearance of color appeared to be of Ammolite's but less back and silver, and more color. Three sets of eyes, as if two had been perfectly in sync but the other two were not, it wasn't clear as to which one was which.

Verdite trapped gems and threw them to Peridot which she proceeded to hand to Stevonnie to bubble and send into the temple. Thorite was doing the same thing.

"Clean up, that's what I am." Thorite muttered to herself but that was the Jasper side of her speaking. "I wouldn't think so." Thorite said, "I think we're being strong by taking out our enemy and even more so, because those Crystal Gems, needed our help." Thorite groaned and just started punching harder.

"Verdite, Thorite. Fusion, one more time." The two backed off from their enemies and landed by each other, causing their gems to glow. A gem by the naval, by the chest, on the nose and one on her back. They all looked at each other and they knew their fusions. Jade and Lapis looked at each other, they had yet to fuse.

"You sure you want to do this?" Jade asked Lapis. Lapis stared at her for a moment, when she fused with Jasper, she felt a sense of pressure it was obvious but there was one here too, so Lapis had her doubts. Jade smiled. "It's okay, you're strong enough on your own, and so I am. Let's just do this as ourselves." Jade opened her mouth slightly, her gem was on the top of her mouth and was going to spit acid but she would only wait.

"Thanks." Lapis said as she pressed her back against Jade's looking around, using the water around them to create a temporary shield as Jade summoned a hand held crossbow And shot at the monsters around them, Lapis pushed them back as Jade took them out, one by one.

* * *

They unfused and fell apart from one another, they couldn't do it. They couldn't stay together, and they were all too much… Amethyst overworked their body, they all had. Ivory laid on the ground, it was only Stevonnie that remained as a fusion and Lapis couldn't hold it much longer, neither could Jade, and they still hadn't taken out the main fusion, what was supposed to be the Cluster.

"Garnet! Pearl! Amethyst!" Stevonnie called out, "Are you guys okay?!" No response from anyone. "Peridot, we need to retrieve them!" Peridot looked at them like they were crazy.

"And do what after that?! We're going to die... We're going to be shattered!" Peridot shrieked, Stevonnie lost it and smacked Peridot.

"This is not the time." Stevonnie slightly growled, "You are a gem! Act like one!" Stevonnie said, summoning their shield and lifting the sword and running onto the shore to move the injured away, Ivory stood up on her own with the sensation of the waves. She looked around seeing each of her friends, struggling to even sit up. Ivory couldn't stand the sight. She gathered them all up, placing them closer to Stevonnie, whom took them to the rocks where cover was. Pearl, Amethyst, Garnet, Hambergite, Ammolite, Diopside, Jasper, Vesuvianite, Taaffeite, Phospho, Emerald, even Jet... After they were all safe for the moment, she looked to Lapis and Jade whom were faltering. Ivory summoned her sai, and took out the enemy. Jade and Lapis were fighting to the best of their ability

"Go, take a moment... and calm down. Rest... I'll take care of this..." Ivory stated.

"Ivory you can't fight them on your own...!" Lapis shouted. Ivory smiled, the flashing images of her dream haunted her at this moment but she thought it would be Homeworld Gems, not this Cluster...

"I got this..." Ivory said, and jumped up on to the cluster's neck just to be flicked off like a bug, and be slammed into the waters, but she swam up and went at it again. The replica Ivory stood there, looking at her original, wondering what she should do with herself. The replica Ivory's gem light up as she walked up to the Cluster. She knew what she was going to do now.

* * *

/Alright, that's it. That's all there is. Cliffhanger, for...one week-ish? I mean, I'm going to be updating all my stories like crazy. So it won't be too long until this is completed.

As for my thoughts, I feel like I left a lot of parts out, at least I had a huge plan for this chapter but it seemed like it was going to be filler so I decided against it, but I might make it a bonus chapter after the next one.

 **Thank you all for reading this far, and I appreciate the support from everyone.**

Edit: I just want to let everyone know. There's someone who cares about you, if where you are, where you were, someone will remember you kindly and cares about you. And even if you don't think there's someone who cares, come talk to me because _I_ care. I'll try to talk to everyone whom approaches me.

Someone cares about you.


	17. The Arrival: Part 2

**Chapter 16: The Arrival Part 2**

The sounds of thudding and groaning continued a pattern, slowing down a little with each strike, the thudding became fore aggressive and the groans weakening. The Homeworld Gems flinched with every hit that made contact with the one who was taking such a massive beating. The Crystal gems seemed to shrink into themselves—more and more—trying to convince themselves to go out there and help her, but…

"Agh…." Ivory got to her feet again, the Cluster growled at her and slammed the chain onto her again; Ivory's gem began to crack and all of Beach City heard it, there was a unison gasp from those who still maintained their form. Soon, she too, would lose her physical form, it would fail soon against the Cluster's attacks but she fought that feeling of weakness off. She refused the pain, pretended as if she didn't have nerves in the first place.

"Ivory! It's over! Stand down!" Lapis called, "Hide and wait like the rest of us!" Garnet didn't like how she said it, but it was the truth, Garnet opened her mouth as if to agree, but hen Ivory got to her feet and threw the sai at the cluster, getting pretty close to the center gem, but it didn't penetrate it at all.

"Not… Not yet!" Ivory was determined, if she gave up—she knew Steven would die, Connie would die, the Earth was at risk of being destroyed and probably more planets than that. She knew the Crystal Gems didn't want that, _she_ didn't want that either. The Cluster slammed the chain down in her direction again, Ivory dodged again as her form began to glitch, she began to weep from the pain, her body was so sore from being over worked, her hands shaking but tight on her sai.

"Ivory, please!" Lapis begged, but Ivory continued to take down the Cluster still. Ivory shook her head, and jumped onto the Cluster, plunged the blade as deep as it could go into the epidermis of the monster. It howled in pain and smacked her off of itself as if she were a gnat, "We can't win!" Lapis kept trying to convince Ivory to give up, she knew Ivory was going to be killed if she continued this path. Lapis looked to Pearl in a pleading fashion, "Please! Tell her to stop before she's shattered!" Pearl looked at Lapis in disbelief then looked at Ivory fighting fiercely against the geo-weapon, she recognized that scene. _"I can't do anything..."_ Pearl remembered when she fought Sugilite and was on the brink of giving up.

"Come on Ivory!" Steven was unfused with Connie. "I know you can do it! You always can! You're just as strong as the rest of us!" There was an unimportant hint of confusion as to how Steven got a megaphone, but then everyone quickly realized it was just Amethyst. "I know you can do it! You'll find it's weakness! And we'll help you!"

"I know you can, Ivory! Just hold out a little longer…!" Amethyst stopped as the sudden rapid blur of confusion as Cluster's weapon crashed onto the shore and onto Ivory. It just happened too fast this time.

"Ivory!" Lapis shouted in concern and spawned wings and burst into the air with Jade watching, waiting to spit if it attacked while the scene unfolded. Pearl got to her feet quickly, but Steven and Connie were the closest to reaching the scene first however.

"Steven!" Pearl screeched at Steven as he ran ahead after Connie.

"Wait, Connie!" Steven called to his friend, but she wasn't afraid of being at the scene and grabbed Ivory, expecting to drag her away but could just straight pick her up.

"She's so light..." Connie muttered, not focused on the giant monster staring at her.

"Connie!" Steven called again as the weapon came flying down onto them.

* * *

"All aboard the spoon train!" Steven hailed as he collapsed on the floor, Amethyst's dorky laughter filled the room at Steven's remark.

"Steven, none of us are going to be _spooning_." Pearl replied sparingly, Amethyst curled around Steven for a brief moment just to spite Pearl in a teasing manner. "Amethyst…!" Amethyst chortled then rolled onto her back. Steven chuckled as the lights turned off.

"Goodnight." Garnet said in soothing tone, there was a surplus of yawns and heavy sighs admitted from each individual. Either way, they were all tired—Lapis at some point during the night curled up by Ivory.

"H-Hey, Pearl said no 'spooning.' Remember?" Ivory teased, Lapis didn't let go, there was a slight tightening around Ivory's waist without a word, "Lapis." Ivory rolled over to face the other gem, "Are you alright?"

"What happened?" Lapis said rather laconically.

"What do you mean?" Ivory looked Lapis in the eye, she looked fairly upset, Ivory became much more concerned when she finally noticed.

"What happened to Homeworld?" Lapis paused then rephrased, "Things were so simple then, and then the whole war started and now… When the Crystal Gems die, if we die during this battle. This whole war, their lives, won't mean a thing." Lapis looked down, she felt as if she wasted her life and it was in her eyes and Ivory could tell.

"It never really meant anything to Homeworld." Ivory responded softly, "No revolution occurred there, nothing changed our… their culture. And the technology, it would've happened sooner or later."

"So, nothing's changed?" Lapis questioned her with a slightly bitter tone. Ivory thought for a moment before answering, reflecting on the situation she was in.

"Nothing there, anyway." she replied, "However here means all the difference. If that war didn't happen. Steven nor Connie would be here, nor Amethyst." she paused, "Nor would I." she added with a soft laugh but there was a bittersweet tone behind it.

"How long were you trapped here?" Lapis assumed that Ivory had been trapped in the temple like she had.

"Me? Here? I wasn't trapped here, I was sent! Homeworld **trapped** me!" Ivory said, face heating up with anger, Lapis knew that feeling and understood her anger but it didn't stop her from covering Ivory's mouth with her hand.

"Shush..." Lapis hushed politely and Ivory nodded catching her breath. "I get it." Lapis included.

"They trapped you? For how long?" Ivory had to ask, it didn't seem like they'd be the type to do that but their reaction to finding Lapis wasn't exactly the best one.

"Thousands of years..." Lapis answered honestly, she was obviously sore about it and looked down, she was really close to crying.

"Hey..." Ivory hesitated, she wanted to reassure Lapis but what she could do might come off as insulting, or rude, maybe it could just be confusing. Would Lapis flip out? Would she hate her for it? Ivory reached out and placed a light hand on Lapis' shoulder awkwardly. "I'm sure they didn't mean for that to happen, it was an honest mistake." Ivory rubbed Lapis' shoulder more confidently, "I'm **sure**." Ivory explained, her palm light up as she summoned a hankie to wipe Lapis' eyes. "I'm sorry your were trapped in there for so long, I… I really am." Ivory never thought being trapped was so bad, but now that she thought about it, now that she was getting worked up. "I was in a bubble for a really long time."

"I was in someone's head." Lapis replied, there was a moment of silence then the two started laughing, "Okay, that did sound a little weird, but, just imagine for a second, listening to every word, knowing every thought of one person, being there for them every single day, but they pretend you don't even exist..."

"Sounds agonizing..." Ivory never had that in a bubble, when she was in a bubble it was like going under anesthetic for a long time. "I can hardly remember anything before being sentenced to imprisonment."

"Do you remember who gave you that sentence?" Lapis asked, Ivory simply shook her head.

"I only remember being sentenced to that..."

"Why was that?" Lapis didn't understand Homeworld's system of government.

"It's because they can't prove you did or did not do the act you're accused of doing." Another voice broke in, "Rose took me to several meetings, she explained how Homeworld court worked. Almost 'guilty 'til proven innocent' system; however there was nothing to prove because there was only an accusation and nothing else. That's assuming however..." There was silence for a minute, "I'm sorry for interrupting but I am a very light sleeper unlike Garnet or Amethyst or…" Pearl's eyes moved over to Hambergite and Ammolite. "Ahem, those two." Lapis' softness left and became a bit more aggressive again.

"You know, I get, just, _a little_ , when you refer to _us_ like that." Lapis said, a slight twinge of hostility coming to the surface, before Pearl could reply, Ivory provided her excuse.

"Look, I don't know how long you've been listening to this, but there is definitely harsh feelings between you two, the most. Lapis nor anyone in this room is your enemy, Pearl, the same goes for you Lapis. The last thing _we_ want is a fight. And **I'm sure** you both know that." Ivory spoke calmly, and both their expressions changed, lightening from harsh to sincere, the gems on Pearl and Lapis seemed to change; they became smooth. "Lapis I know you're mad, and you have every reason to be, but… you have to know that they didn't know you were in there."

" _You three **knew** I was in there..."_

Both Pearl and Lapis reminisced the same scene at the exact same moment.

"Lapis?" Pearl called to the other gem, "I am, very, truly, deeply sorry that I forgot about you, and I shouldn't have been so careless and hostile. If I knew you didn't want a fight..."

"It is my fault as well." Lapis stated firmly, not entirely interrupting since Pearl had paused. "I was just as hostile, and I assumed you wanted a fight from the beginning."

"You were scared." Pearl replied as Ivory simply just listened. "I am," Pearl cleared her throat, "I am glad Steven has you as a friend..." Pearl paused again, "A-And, that I have you as an ally." Lapis was stunned, it didn't sound like Pearl but it also sounded sincere, and genuine, and kind! Lapis did not expect this tonight.

"Do… You really mean that?" Lapis was cynical; Pearl wasn't a close friend or someone vital, or anything like that, but the sound of allies—someone she could trust—she liked the sound of that. Pearl looked at Steven for a brief moment, Rose slipping away from her mind again, she smiled at Steven.

"I do." Pearl turned her head to Lapis then got up and slid by the two wrapping her arms around the both of them, giving a huge smile, knocking the air out of them. "And just to show you!" she started cuddling the two, catching both Ivory and Lapis off guard. Lapis and Ivory gave an awkward small smile.

"You're acting weird." Lapis stated.

"I'm acting _human_." Pearl stopped after a minute or two, sensing the awkwardness. Strangely, Lapis had fallen asleep in Pearl's embrace. When Pearl was about to fall asleep, Ivory spoke up.

"Thank you, for everything." Ivory whispered.

"What do you mean?" Pearl whispered back, much quieter than Ivory though as to not wake Lapis.

"For giving me the opportunity… to enjoy all this..."

* * *

There on the shore, cracked gem shards blended with the sand, Ivory was gone and the two whom were there first—Connie and Steven—knew it. They'd never seen a gem shatter like that, with the blade puncturing the hand the entire length of Ivory's body making a part of the Cluster poof. A clump of gem shards landed with the ivory petals scattered around it. The cluster had lost its hand, but they lost a friend. Steven didn't focus on that for a second, he just bubbled the clump of gem shards with some sand. Connie picked up Ivory's shards, she was impressed and sorrowful at the same time. The gem broke as if someone picked apart a real rose, petal by petal.

"Steven, are the light cannons still outside?" Connie asked shoving the shards and sand into her pocket, "I think they can help… If this thing is even _close_ to being beatable, then we have to take that chance!" Steven nodded in agreement, sweating like a madman as he tried to keep the bubble up against the Cluster's chain.

"They're up by the house… H-Hey, Connie, listen… I need you t-to run when I drop the bubble!" Steven exclaimed, Connie murmured in understanding as she picked up the last piece of Ivory, buried in the sand, it looked intact but parts of it were cracked. The bubble shook as the chain slammed on their shield, the chain moved back. "Now!" Steven screamed as he dropped the bubble, Connie ran for the beach house, past the other gems hiding in the rocks, sore or in their gems. Steven however, stayed there and walked forward and punched the abomination. No response.

Steven hit it again, but harder. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Again… Nothing. Again…! Nothing. Again! Nothing! Again!

 **NOTHING!**

The weapon roared at him but didn't touch Steven, the Cluster simply glared with its dozens of eyes, it's grip on the chain tightening.

"Steven!" Amethyst broke the silence with her cracking voice. "What are you doing?! Get out of there!" She shouted. Meanwhile Ruby and Sapphire had their own dilemma—Sapphire saw so many things that could go wrong and Ruby felt so much so intensely for a solid minute—it made Garnet's feet freeze. When the weapon went up, Garnet finally burst in Steven direction, there was a unison scream from the Cluster as light burst against it, Garnet saw her chance and located a clump of gems on it's forearm and ripped it from the form as the other hand vanished. Garnet quickly bubbled it as the Cluster screeched in pain, still blinded by the light. Amethyst, Pearl, Lapis and Jade quickly found hold of the Cluster's various clumps of gems shards and began ripping them out of the Cluster's form. Connie ran in that general direction and almost slipped, Lapis glided over rapidly and caught the child before hitting the ground.

"Take me to the Cluster!" Connie instructed as she unsheathed the sword while in Lapis' arms, not quite a demand but not a request either; Lapis sped in the Cluster's direction then prepared to throw Connie into the Cluster. "One shot Connie… Come on..." Lapis went up above the Cluster's head and dropped Connie, watching to make sure she had a good landing. Connie went down exactly in the center of the Cluster's head and went straight down without a stop until she had cut all the way through the Cluster.

 **POOF!**

It was gone, but the gem shards were trying to regenerate, and quickly. Pearl looked at Amethyst whom was already looking at her, they ran at each other and spun the bowed, hands connected, fingers laced delicately as they fused. Opal stood strong and shot a single arrow and trapped all the gem shards in an instant.

"We did it… We did it, Steven!" Connie shouted with glee. "We saved the world!" Steven smiled as he started talking about the amazing flip and the shot she made into the Cluster and how awesome it was, then… then he stopped laughing, he stopped smiling, everyone did.

"She's gone…?" he asked, as if someone had already stated it. Connie looked at their pockets and emptied them out, letting the sand fall from their palms to show the petals.

"There wasn't a lot I could do." Connie held them out, and Steven picked up a petal, the white cream color seeming to turn pink in his eyes as he thought of his mom.

"I should've helped..."

"Steven..." Connie started.

"There wasn't much you could do. I couldn't get to her in time, even at my fastest speed." Lapis started, Steven closed his eyes and turned to Lapis bitterly.

"Maybe we shouldn't wait until the last second to save someone!" Steven snapped, then reeled back and apologized. Lapis shook her head, she understood but it didn't change that fact that it hurt just as much on her end. They both were taking it pretty hard.

"Steven, it was her choice, and it had unfortunate consequences." Pearl started.

"Unfortunate?" Steven looked to Pearl, he understood what she meant but he also knew her type of thinking, "She lost her life defending this planet! Defending everyone here! And her loss is _just_ unfortunate?!" Steven continued.

"Steven." Garnet reaffirmed her position as leader, "What Pearl is trying to say is..." Garnet paused as she got on one knee next to Steven, "She died protecting everyone, protecting us and your friends, and she made that choice. The same choice you and I, and the rest of us chose to make. The only difference is, she just couldn't do it on her own." she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, after taking off her glasses. "You of all people know that. We have to be a team."

"Heeey, Steven!" Amethyst called to the boy as his face began to fill with tears, "I need to tell ya somethin' and fast." Steven debated on snapping at her, but held back the last thing he wanted was to hurt someone else. Steven walked over sluggishly to Amethyst, hoping she had something constructive to add. Garnet simply adjusted her shades and stood up; Perhaps she knew something they didn't.


End file.
